seeing [blue] dots

my photographer started doing weird things...

like making shadow puppets...

clearly not amused

I call these my "disco ball" earrings

Piggybacking off of my post from Friday, this is what I wore on Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas, just us two (four, if you count the pups), then had some friends over for dinner. We drank glühwein (a German spiced wine), ate yummy food, had delicious homemade Kahlua over vanilla ice cream (divine, I tell you), and played Cranium & Rainy Day Golf.

Maybe I'm just postponing boxing up all of our Christmas decorations, or that we've been busy every weekend since Christmas, OR that we just celebrated belated Christmases with both sets of parents this weekend, but I have to wonder, why is everyone in such a hurry to be done with Christmas (my mom and mother-in-law excluded - they left the trees & stockings up for us)? 

Seems like the preparation and anticipation and start in October (after Thanksgiving for myself), and come 26 December, as soon as gifts are exchanged and the eggnog all drunk up, decorations are put away and Christmas cheer has to wait another year. It seems almost taboo to think about it after that day, let alone talk about it to some people. It's on to the next consumer driven holiday, Valentine's Day (don't get me wrong, I like V-Day, but let's be real, folks - we can all be a little bit guilty of "BUY ALL THE THINGS!" during Christmas). I'd like to advocate for less consumerism and less hype about Christmas & peppermint mochas & stockings & who has the best lights or the best tree - isn't the point of it to celebrate Jesus's birth, and spend time with loved ones? This weekend with both sets of parents, and last weekend with my extended family really drove that home for me - it's about spending that special time with the people you love, not the gifts, or who spent how much money, or whether or not you got that ONE thing you REALLY wanted, but didn't really NEED. Going forward, I plan to be sure that my actions jive with the words I've just written - easier said than done, I know.

So, in the words of a wise man who called himself Dr. Seuss...

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! 

My intent was not to offend anyone who loves the holiday season - these are just my thoughts & reflections

top: Ann Taylor

pants: Aéropostale sort of similar below

shoes: Kohl's sort of similar below

earrings: Kohl's