Hi to all my Gal Pals,
Well, another Christmas is upon us and I am so excited! As you know from my last Christmas blog I go crazy with decorating. I truly have a Christmas house with all my every day decorations and some furniture shoved into my second bedroom. Every wall hanging and knick-knack has something to do with Christmas. So many people have told me I should be on a Christmas Walk which is such a wonderful compliment. It takes me over 40 hours to decorate but I think it is worth every minute. I am not sure Matty appreciates it especially after I dressed him up as Santa. I have 3 parties at my house during the holidays. When all the festivities are over I feel a little sad but, like Crabby Maxine, I am never lonely because I have four men in my life. I get up with Charlie Horse. I spend the day with Arthur Itis. I dine with Will Power. And I go to bed with Ben Gay.
Last Christmas I wrote about reminiscing Christmases past but this year I want to concentrate on Christmas present. As many of you like myself have lost loved ones who we miss all the time but especially during the holidays, we think of the holidays we enjoyed when they were with us and wish we could spend another joyful Christmas day with them. There are times I get a little weepy but I am now able to grieve for a short period of time then I think of the joy my loved ones brought to my life and I start smiling again. Then I think of the many blessings I have in my life right now and I need to make myself present for those I do celebrate with on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our lives are so hectic every day and even more so getting ready for Christmas that I want to make sure that when I get together with family and friends they know how much I love their company. Unfortunately we never know who will still be with us next year at this time so when you get together with others in your life make them feel important and special. Every one needs to know that someone cares about them. Let that someone be you.
Here is a Christmas riddle. How do you know Santa is a man? Answer: No woman would wear the same outfit every year! I always wondered why we decorate with red, green and gold colors. There are many different theories but I found an article that I thought represented this tradition the best. The red symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ, green is the color of the evergreen plants like holly and mistletoe which represent Christ’s life and eternal nature while gold is often used to represent the sun and the Son of God who will bring light into the darkness. Then I wanted to know if there was a Christmas dress code. I did a little research (I am a little nerdy that way) and found out that we no longer have a specific code and we can dress up however we want. There was a time when our elders would have been appalled that we show up on Christmas Day in our blue jeans but times have changed. The Christmas dress code of dressing up ended in the 1990’s and thus began the “anything goes” feel to the holiday season. These days our choices range from cozy to glamorous, from silly holiday sweaters and flannel to glistening accessories to color-coordinating green and red. If you are attending a Christmas themed party or social outing, follow the theme of the event. I for one am not really into buying clothes that can only be worn during the holidays but I do have a few pieces, both old and new, that can be worn no matter what the theme of the party. Hence, the Three Days of Christmas.
This is where I usually insert a picture of a landscape design. I could have gone out and shown you pictures of snow covered evergreens and told you about the importance of incorporating them into your landscape for winter interest. Instead, I decided to show you something I did within my townhouse that kind of goes along with the “gold” theme of Christmas and is a great indoor design strategy.
The walls of my townhouse are all a very light taupe and my carpeting is off white. I have a very open concept and I felt that I needed an accent wall to break up all the “lightness”. I have a wall that is 17 feet high and I decided to paint it a caramel gold color. It goes beautifully with the stair banister, my metallic gold decor and it adds a richness to the environment. It looks exceptionally pretty surrounded by Christmas decorations.
Well, let’s look at the three days of Christmas outfits.
This outfit is for those of you who are celebrating Christmas Day with football, games like Charades or Pictionary, or sitting around with friends and family vegging out with pizza or finger foods. I love this Christmas tee shirt because it is not red and green. It is a navy blue with two tone pink colored poinsettias. I paired it with my most comfy blue jeans and navy blue boots (just in case you end up having to be outside maybe looking at Christmas decorations in the neighborhood). A comfy pair of sneakers would look good with this outfit too.
I love how the poinsettias go down the left arm sleeve on this “Life Is Good” tee shirt. In the last blog I told you how our library foundation had a used jewelry sale. No piece was over $2. I got these poinsettia earrings for $1. The deep rose glass petals look lovely with the pink color of the poinsettias in the tee. I paired it with a green watch and a garnet gem ring. I cannot afford to buy myself fine jewelry so when I go into an antique shop I look for faux gem rings with beautiful or unusual settings. I loved the setting of this faux emerald ring but the picture does not do it justice.
This outfit is for those of you who are going to a family or a friend’s Christmas get-together where you will probably have a traditional sit down or buffet dinner and just enjoy each other’s company. I liked this jacket because it is made of sweatshirt material so it is comfy and it is forest green not a bright green. I have had this jacket for over 20 years. It looks like new because I only wear it once a year. It is decorated with embroidered Santas, Christmas tree and ornaments. I paired it with a red turtleneck top, black slacks and and black flats.
I love the Santa button! The embroidered ornaments are gold in the center so I paired the outfit with round, gold clip-on earrings. The bracelet was made by one of my coworkers and the stone of the ring matches the green beads of the bracelet . Again, I love the setting of the faux stone.
This is an outfit I would wear to an evening Christmas party. It is more formal and it makes me look thin. I bought this cover-up at Alsip Nursery in Frankfort. It is a large garden center that sometimes has cute clothes. The Santas go all the way around the cover-up and it is made of a stretchy material. I paired it with a back turtleneck and black leather looking skinny pants. I dress it up with 1 inch black heels.
The necklace and earrings were bought at the library jewelry sale. I got the gold and red necklace for $2 and the matching earrings for $1. I wore a pearl ring that matches the pompons of Santa’s hat and my red ruby ring. I wore the thin gold bangle and gold watch on one wrist and the black bracelet on the other.
I try not to think about my weight during the holidays but I am proud of myself for losing 23 pounds since the start of my blog four years ago. My liver doctor is soooo happy with me since the majority of the weight came off this past year. I wish I could say I was diligent in following a diet but most of it came off because of circumstances. Recently I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic and ended up with blisters all over my mouth which made eating difficult. Then I ended up with back spasms while putting up Christmas decorations so I ended up flat on my back which made eating difficult. As Aunty Acid says “It’s bad news when your back goes out more than you do.” The nice thing is I feel OK about eating Christmas cookies and candy, the bad thing is I don’t know when to stop eating sugary Christmas calories. I will say that my heart doctor was not happy with my diet so I had to curb my breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast while increasing my intake of plain oatmeal. Good thing I like oatmeal.
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to a new year of blogs to share with you. I hope you know you are all very important to me! Aunty Acid says it best “I don’t want anything for Christmas. I just want the person reading this to be happy, healthy and loved.” (see, she is not always sarcastic!).
So until next year, remember God loves you and so do I.
A Peek Into Pam’s Closets 