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coastal themed Christmas tree

Since y’all have been SO kind to read through yesterday’s post on Christmas, I will keep the Christmas photos to a minimum so that you can get to the delicious recipe at the end of today’s post.

I’ll start with this little tree I put together this year, which sits in a funny little corner in the center of our first floor.  If you go left, you’ll head upstairs.  But if you turn right you’ll go into the kitchen (in fact I can see a doorknob that I didn’t edit in the background, which takes you to our garage.)

I had a little trouble making up my mind this year on whether I should do sort of a coastal blue theme (blue is my favorite color) or stick with the traditional red and green, which I love.

The result was a mish mash of colors this year.  Does anybody else do this?  Please say, “Yes!”

using feathers to decorate a Christmas tree

I found several packages of pheasant feathers at Michaels and simply stuck them around the top of the tree.  The vintage blue and silver tree topper was given to me by Mom.  Instead of using a skirt, I just tucked some spare burlap that I had around the base of the tree.

mini blue and white Christmas tree

Here’s a small tabletop tree I did in one part of our family room.  Again, using blue and white as my theme.  I already had everything, including the glittery white bird (found at Michaels) that sat near the top.  I used a pewter dish that my Mom had passed along to me and filled it with small glass balls and a shell one of my boys had found at the beach last summer.

tabletop Christmas tree with blue ribbon

This tabletop tree sits in a small, galvanized bucket.  This year I sat it on my family room sideboard atop a vintage silver tray with a couple of mercury glass votive holders.  I did something similar here last year.

elf on a shelf

And because my boys don’t care all that much about how the house is decorated {as long as the Christmas tree is up and decorated}, I thought I’d share what Elfy did on his last day with us.  Funny, he had trouble spelling in his note to them, but spelled “Merry Christmas” perfectly with bananagram letters.

Finally, I wanted to share with you the spice rub I used on the roasted pork loin we had for Christmas dinner.  It was delicious and I’ve used it on center-cut pork chops since.

dry rub for pork

Using dried oregano, minced garlic, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and a couple of tbsp of fennel seeds that I had toasted and crushed, I quickly put together this rub.

applying a dry rub to pork loin

I applied the rub on all sides of the pork loin.  It was covered and put back into the refrigerator to marinate for 6 hours until it was time to go into the oven.

oregano, toasted fennel seed and garlic dry rub

I’m a little upset with myself that I didn’t photograph the pork once we took it out of the oven, but it was Christmas and the hectic day gave way to limited photo taking.

I do hope you will try it.

Toasted Fennel, Oregano & Garlic Dry Rub

Ingredients

1 tbsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed

4 tbsp of dried oregano

4-5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 tsp kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Method

Combine first 3 ingredients using a mortar and pestle.  Add in salt and black pepper.  Apply liberally to pork loin and then cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.  Roast in a 400 degree oven until internal temperature reaches 155. Length of time will vary according to your oven and the weight of your roast.

Thank you for allowing this wayward blogger to post about Christmas a full month after it has passed.

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

Allison

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