Christmas Eve, as always, la famille enjoyed bounty from Yummy Yummy II while celebrating Mr. Shop Tart’s birthday. His wife got him these cuff links by Steampunk on Etsy, made from vintage watch works. Cool, right?

After his party, they stayed up really late waiting for Santa. Christmas morning, the Shop Tart ’bout fell out because she had forgotten to load the percolator with Cashua coffee the night before. Children like to wake up at 4 on Christmas morning. Chez Shop Tart, they are not allowed to come downstairs until 6:30, which is still obscenely early, but their heads might explode if they have to wait longer and she is no child abuser. She could either give the children sleeping aids (illegal, unhealthy and creepy) or drink copious amounts of delicious coffee while trying to block out their squeals of delight (has its drawbacks, but legal and involves delicious coffee). Years ago, the Shop Tart’s mother gave her this percolator, which she pulls out once or twice a year. It is the bomb. Usually, she loads it the night before and plugs it in to get it going before the children wake up. This year, they had to stay upstairs for a few more minutes while she and Mr. Shop Tart fumbled around the kitchen, readying their fix.

They had a small breakfast in anticipation of the large brunch they would enjoy later at the Shop Tart’s mother’s house. Last week, Mr. Shop Tart purchased biscuits and sausage gravy from Spotted Salamander at the All-Local Farmers’ Market for Christmas morning. They were frozen and took about five minutes to prepare. And were un-freaking-believably good. Not a pretty picture, but yum, yum, yum.

Present opening ensued and the children were adorable. The Shop Tart thought she loved Christmas before - with children, it’s even better. They were really excited about the birdhouse Mr. Shop Tart got them from the All-Local Farmers’ market. Yes, it was still dark outside.

To prove they are normal children, they were also very excited about their electronic gifts. (Each of the two older boys got a different one and the Shop Tart isn’t saying what they were, because they weren’t purchased locally and far be it from her to set any kind of precedent about what children should be allowed to have at what age.) The Shop Tart squealed with glee when she opened a gift from her friend Tracie, who is one of the best gift-givers in the world. Really. Tracie found this casserole dish and lid at the Old Mill Antique Mall. For those of you who are oddly, even freakishly, obsessed familiar with these things, the dish is Pyrex, in the Friendship pattern. That pattern is slightly harder to find than the others and the Shop Tart LOVES it.

After the presents were opened and the sun had risen officially, la famille went to the Shop Tart’s parents’ house for brunch. As you may remember, the Shop Tart’s mother is slightly under the weather, so they had decided to let someone else do the cooking. Dishes from Happy Cafe, the Biscuit House and Gourmet Shop were divine. There is no better smoked salmon in all of Columbia than that found at the Gourmet Shop.

They also had baked apples and cranberries from Happy Cafe. They were not served with the basil jelly off to the side, but it made a decent photo, n’est-ce pas? The basil jelly from this year’s Trinity Cathedral Bazaar was served with cream cheese and crackers as an appetizer.

This tray of biscuits was about to go into the oven. The sweet potato biscuits were a gift from the lovely Sidney Heyward, who had them custom-made at the Biscuit House from her mother’s recipe oops using her mother’s smaller biscuit cutter so the biscuits wouldn’t be too large. Which is actually kind of intriguing. The cinnamon biscuits are from Happy Cafe. Both were obscenely delicious.

Miss Christine Sellers of Columbia, now of Washington D.C., provided this plate of beer and molasses bread. Y’all. It was so good. The Shop Tart’s mama was going nuts over it. (Recipe, Christine? Please?) Christine also provided a ride from Washington for one of the Shop Tart’s sisters.

The Shop Tart’s plate, pre-biscuits, looked like this. The Happy Cafe sausage and cheese grits to the left of the bagel were so, so good. You don’t even know. But the Shop Tart does, because she ate about half a pan of them. Her middle-school son ate the other half.

This was on the adult table (edited to make it look kind of old-school, because the Shop Tart is a child of the seventies and eighties and Christmas is for children).

And the children’s table…

Speaking of old-school, some grown-ups still get stockings, like the Shop Tart’s sister and brother. Mom needle-pointed stockings for each of her children.

After dessert at her aunt and uncle’s house and an afternoon movie, la famille returned to Mimi’s house for a light dinner - salad and more sausage cheese grits. Back at home, the Shop Tart was in bed by 9 pm, fast asleep.

So…the sales are crazy. Many stores are about to take inventory and they are trying to clear out as much merchandise as possible so they won’t have to count it. What does this mean for you? Deals, deals, deals! There are plenty of sales on the calendar, but if you don’t see your favorite boutique there, rest assured they are probably having one. The Shop Tart created this quiz to help you make decisions about sale merchandise.

Happy Shopping and don’t forget to tell them you read it on the Shop Tart!

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