As the holiday decorating was complete, it was time to show it off with our first holiday party. We started early Saturday morning with intense dusting, vacuuming and general tidying, while gingerbread men crisped nicely in our temperature-fluctuating oven. We chopped and stirred, baked and sprinkled away the afternoon. Somehow, we stayed ahead of schedule and found ourselves relaxing by six, eagerly awaiting our first guests at eight. To complete the Christmasy atmosphere, we began our inaugural fire as the tree twinkled in the background and candles lit the windows. Trust me, we had ambiance coming out of our ears. (For those fire savvy folk out there, don't worry... we moved our stockings to another locale.) With a fire pro in our ranks, the flames roared beautifully. The flues -top and bottom- were open and life seemed perfect. Too perfect. We should have known...
Suddenly, smoke billowed from the fireplace and rolled all over our ambience, headed straight for the smoke detector. We set up fans to corral the beast and hoped to push it out the open windows. I stood in the hallway with a blanket to shield the one detector, praying it wouldn't sound. Water extinguished the flame. More smoke plumed. People coughed and eyes teared. It was just how we wanted our first party to go. As we directed the smoke out, we watched the time tick. Guests were scheduled to arrive in 30 minutes. Somehow (a Christmas miracle, perhaps?), we were able to eliminate the smoke with ten minutes to spare. Phewff. All that remained was a hint of campsite for the nostrils. As the party went on, the smokiness merely added to the smell of Christmas and we wound up having a great night.
As for our fireplace, it will remain the central, yet dormant, element of our dining room as long as we live here. Unless of course we're feeling adventurous...
Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you all experience a little Christmas miracle of your own :)
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