All things EARTH...

[Sailor_Sally]

Mousey , So sorry to hear about your Dad !

[laurspag]

Mousey, I'm sorry about all that has been going on. It is really hard when out parents aren't well.

 

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was enjoyable. I love the whole prepping and cooking thing. There was only a total of 6 of us this year. It took the stress off to not be cooking for a large crowd.

 

Here is the table:

 

 

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[ChollaChick]

I, too, like the cooking and prepping for Thanksgiving. To me it isn't a chore, and I love the whole thing. This year it was just my husband and I, and that's okay. I did a half turkey breast so we aren't inundated with leftovers and that was awesome. We still have leftovers but won't be eating turkey until New Years. :)

 

Today, I braved the crowds and went Black Friday shopping. We aren't planning on exchanging much in the way of gifts this year - we are going to a couple of holiday shows (Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Piano Guys) this month and are saving for our cruise next year, but I did buy some stuff for me (cough) on the Black Friday sales. Got a gorgeous new outfit for our concert on Sunday night -- probably not the best earth ensemble but I feel beautiful in it, and to me that is the most important thing. It's a black spaghetti strapped bustier type top with a peplum on the bottom. It's covered in this really beautiful lace and is really sexy/flattering. I am going to wear it with charcoal leather skinny jeans and a red shrug. I bought some cute red earrings and a necklace and am trying to decide if I should wear my black boots or my red shoe-boots. Any suggestions?

 

My hair is REALLY different. I am really open to ideas for hair and will try just about anything. So I gave my hair stylist free reign and it's SUPER RED. At first it kind of scared me, but my husband loves it and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it. I think my makeup is off with the new color, but I'm working on it. It looks AWESOME with olive type greens. Really pops. I'll try to get a picture of the hair and my outfit before we go on Sunday. I'm excited about having a new outfit and my new hair.

 

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Now to try to convince hubby to put up the tree. :)

[laurspag]

I've often wondered what it would be like to travel for the holidays. Right now, my daughters live at home so we have them to celebrate with. I have my side of the family over on Christmas day, for a party from noon to around 4:00. Then they go on their way to their own dinner plans. There are a few that do not attend, do to location or perhaps they are hosting a dinner in their own home and need to be there to cook and prep.

 

My husband's side of the family we usually go to on Christmas eve. Last year, we got together the weekend immediately following Christmas.

 

As the kids get older, maybe they're married, having kids of their own...things change. I love the quietness sometimes, with the tree lit, lights off...fireplace going. In many ways, my love for this stems from always being in a big group for holidays, hosting and fussing and getting things ready. I love to host family, but I enjoy....

 

How do I explain this? Having choices. Being able to have everyone over, but having time to myself too. At one point, I had my side of the family over for both Christmas eve, and then again Christmas day for dinner. We made the change a while back to do things a big different. I was worried about it at first, but I really loved having more down time.

 

I still often wonder what different people are doing for Christmas dinner, and if they are alone? Did someone invite them over to their house? I do have them at my house during the day, but do they go home to an empty house?

 

I don't think so, for the most half. But I still think about it.

 

Anyway, I've wondered what it would like to be on a cruise for Christmas, and it is something I just may do someday. I would love to see a ship decorated. In the meantime though, I am getting excited about decorating tomorrow! We all are. It's been snowing off and on for a few days now, so it is feeling very much like the holidays now.

 

I go black Friday shopping too, but I don't line up at 3:00 or 4:00 AM, or go out on Thanksgiving. Mostly, it's because I can get so many of the deals online these days. I can sip coffee in my jammies, cuddle with the dogs and shop from home bright and early. I did go out for a bit though to some of the local places. I tend to have a bit more fun when I have partners in crime. I went alone this year. My sister and I usually go together, but her, my husband and I are going to a wine and chocolate festival tonight, which should be a whole lot of fun.

 

I've given a lot of thought to my outfit for tonight. It's a very casual event, and it's cold here. It's a big open building with all these little stations set up for samples, so we won't be able to hang up coats. I'm thinking of a layered outfit with a vest. If I remember, I will have my husband take a picture! As of right now, I have a gold lace trimmed cami with a brown V-neck sweater on. The lace is along the bottom of the cami, so that shows and it falls at a better length overall. I have a scarf on that I have posted a picture of previously, that has great earthy colors in it. I have brown skinny jeans on that I will wear with boots, and then I have to decide on the vest. The red vest is very lightweight and warmer, but I know the quilted rust colored vest would look beter. I may need the warmth of the red vest in order to not wear a coat. We'll see!

 

Oh, and I ordered these brown boots for just $19.99 online yesterday. As you will see from my picture tonight, my current "fashion" boots are a bit too the cool side.

[laurspag]

Since I am ready, I had my husband take a quick picture. What do you think???

 

 

 

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[Sailor_Sally]

Laurie , Your outfit looks perfect .
I also always did large Thanksgiving and then again on Christmas Eve . When I was married to my late husband we always went to a fancy buffet on Christmas Day . They would have huge ice carvings and carolers and tons of food and champagne . It was really a nice day but the funny thing is my daughter and son spent Christmas with their father ( my first husband ) and assumed we just sat around in an empty house on Christmas . My Daughter now lives in Lakewood , New York so I usually visit during the summer & early fall . Several years ago we got into the habit of all meeting half way for Thanks giving week . A few times it was Washington,DC & a few times Philadelphia . We would tour & go out to eat on Thanksgiving . Now even when they can not make it Gary & I still travel that week . This year it was a cruise . The ship was partially decorated & it was fun to get away .I still have a large gathering with Gary's children & grandchildren Christmas Eve then we relax on Christmas Day . After an evening with five grandchildren under 12 and ten adults it's nice to relax but this year we may go to a nice restaurant .

[MJC]

mousey, how is your dad doing? I'm sorry that you're having a rough time.

Laurie, cute outfit!

Barbara, can't wait to see your hair!

Anita, deja vu, I have some Houston questions for you when you have a moment.

While my in-laws were alive, we would have Thanksgiving at our place and I would do all the cooking and baking, and kosher to boot. I enjoyed it. I love being a hostess and making a pretty table, and being around the table with good friends and good food. I love the holidays. When my FIL passed we started going to Mark's cousins which is equally enjoyable, but he doesn't like that there's no leftovers! So, on Friday I usually make a turkey breast and stuffing and we eat it all weekend. Yum.

The last five or so Christmases I've done all the planning and cooking. My mom can't cook anymore, and my sister and her family usually fly in last minute. I also help my parents shop and wrap all their gifts, plus my own, so it's a very busy time. I LOVE wrapping presents! Every year I have a theme and get creative with what I stick on the boxes. This year I have four new children in my life and I can't wait to shop for them. This year I'm also going to my brother's for Christmas and starting a new way of celebrating because my parents are too ill to travel anymore. His stepdaughters are so cute I can't wait to spend Christmas with them.

I am not a Black Friday shopper, and I don't like crowds, and I don't like to wait in line. I usually take two or three days and get up early so I'm in the stores when they open. I will finish by lunch time and get out before the crowds come. If you have ever been in a NY department store during lunch hour at Christmas time, you would know what I mean! It's a zoo. This year I'm planning to do more online shopping including wrap and ship for those who are far away, because I know I'm going to be in a time crunch.

Today is the day I haul all our holiday stuff down from the attic, close up the lake house, and go home to put up the tree. I think our cat is finally old enough that we can do the whole shebang and she'll leave it alone. It's also the first time I'll get out my holiday music and play it while we decorate. My favorite is Nat King Cole.

[laurspag]

Margaret, I am not a big fan of crowds myself. Maybe it is just the way I shop, but most of the time, I haven't really had the kind of scenarios you see on TV, where people are pushing and shoving their way through lines. After all the shopping I did this year from home on my computer, I am really re-thinking a lot about how I do things. I felt so much more organized and ready.

We pretty much decorated the house yesterday, as planned. I love the whole process, but I must admit that my harmonious side (style statement) gets very out of whack when it comes to Christmas decorating. I have a rough time blending all the things we've accumulated over the years in a manner that looks cohesive.

I am already thinking that I need to rearrange things, but I decided to post pictures of where I am at with this...

I collect snowmen. I like to keep the blues and whites together in this grouping, because they don't necessarily blend well with the rest of the house. I've found that by keeping things together that are similar, I can create points of interest instead of having things look like a tornado hit. I'm not sure if this approach is fully successful, but I"m trying.

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This is the living room mantle area. mostly, we have our garland and the stockings with a few other things here and there. The small pillow on that chair is of a cat wearing antlers, and it says "not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...at least not anymore."

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Here is the living room tree:

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I've always put some things in the family room as well, but last year was the first time I had a second tree, and I love it. The flash makes things a bit brighter than normal. I didn't have a tree skirt yet in this picture, but I ended up getting out the one my husband's mother made. It's a basic green fabric, and she used this trim with those white pom poms on it...it's one of those cases where sentiment wins out.

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I don't have theme trees, but rather collect things over the years. This tree I chose to decorate with things that seemed more natural or were homemade. That is a picture of my dad in the middle, and we put his fishing ornaments on this tree as well.

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[laurspag]

Here is the entertainment center, and some more of my snowman collection. In here, I choose the ones that have the brighter colors, overall. There is clutter in here, while we figure out what to leave out for the holidays and what we should put away. the little tree was my husband's mother's, and we always put it on the end table. This year, we had the chest over on that side of the room because we made room for the tree, and my daughter suggested we leave it and put the tree on it. I'm not sure I like it there. It seems like I'm hiding it? I've adjusted the garland a bit too, to make it look better.

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Here's a view of the living room so that you can see both the tree and the mantle at the same time:

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This is the china cabinet in the dining room. It's another collection of trees from Brian's mother, and a little something that was my dad's too. They probably don't go together, but I love all of them.

Here is the dining room table. Sorry about the glaring light!

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And here are two of the kitchen. I'm still working on this a bit.

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[URL=http://s536.photobucket.com/user/laurspag/media/IMG_28601_zps5aa38214.jpg.html][IMG]http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff328/laurspag/IMG_28601_zps5aa38214.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I didn't want to take a picture of every single little thing, but I think you get the idea. There are little things here and there throughout the downstairs.

[Anita Latte]

Laurie...your decorations are lovely. I appreciate a touch of the holiday spirit here and there and all over. It has been a long-standing goal of mine to eventually have a tree in every room.

One of my Grandmother's friends went ALL OUT on the Christmas decorations. Of course, she had years and years worth of decorations...and I believe she had a tree in each room...in addition to a plethora of other things that just made it feel like Christmas all over her house. I think she had quilts, blankets, pillows, etc., towels in the bathrooms, etc etc...each and every room. Contemplating living in the midst of that does feel like a bit much...but wow, was is ever fun to visit. I like a version of that...a slightly more subdued version. Dare I say, a more Sophisticated version? LOL!!!

I still have what I think of a the "base layer" of Christmas out. I have trees up...but they aren't decorated. Things like that. Thanksgiving was a busy time. And very stressful.

I don't want to be a downer...and I don't need to be using my words in a negative way...so I will simply say that my family and I spent an absolutely lovely relaxing day filled with yummy food and football...and naps on the couch...at home. We did have the morning with our house guests (my SIL and her DH up from Florida) and the evening with them (they stayed with us Wed thru Sat nights). And due to circumstances beyond our control...we decided to opt out of the big family gathering on Thanksgiving day in order for the family to be able to enjoy visiting with DH's parents without the tension that would surely have accompanied his parents and ourselves in the same room.

Sigh.

Moving on.

Laurie, you've inspired me to take pictures to share. It is fun to see each other's decor...and house even. It makes me think that if we were all more geographically close, we would be having a rockin' Christmas party...so we will have to have a virtual one!

mousey...prayers for your Dad and family.

Here's hoping that the current cruisers (Sally and Melody) are having a great time! And taking pictures to share with us!

Margaret...fire away...do you still have that email? ccanitalatte at gee mail dott comm?

OH...GREAT outfit Laurie. I've been lovin' my new boots. Simply wearing them with the simplest things makes me feel like I'm more put together. Going to DH's company Christmas party this weekend...haven't quite figured out what to wear! Need to look at the weather...it's been crazy warm (for this time of year) the past couple of days...like lower 70s. Don't know what the weekend is supposed to be like...

[Anita Latte]

Barbara...I want to see your hair!!!

[Member123]

Laurie... your home looks beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing!

Barbara... I want to see your hair too!

All you lovely ladies. I have to share my Christmas wishes with you now, as I'm in the throes of trying to figure out what I want to bring to the Caribbean. It's actually kind of difficult to think of wearing clothes that (actually) it's a bit too cold to even try on in the house! I just can't seem to wrap my mind around whether I'm going to be warm enough to wear spaghetti straps!

I had an interesting shopping excursion that I thought I'd share. I wonder if any of you are still (on occasion) wearing pantyhose? I thought that I would grab some to wear with my pumps... it's the first time in a long, long time that I have shoes other than sandals!... I think it's been years and years and years (at least NINE) since I've worn pantyhose. I remember department stores having rows and rows and rows of the "things." Anyway... I thought I'd just pop into our Saks Fifth Avenue store because I reasoned that they would carry some of the better pantyhose that might be available. I was shocked at their lack of attention to pantyhose! The ones that they did carry... were BLACK. Maybe it's just my area? Wow, like I say I was surprised. So I am going pantyhose-less to the Caribbean. I hope my feet like being in my pumps without the assistance of hose! It'll be the first time that I've ever done that. So I guess I'm really showing my <sigh> age?

And speaking of that! I can't believe the pretzel shape I have to get into to paint my toes! I am just a Chatty Cathy, sharing way too much information at the moment! But I can report that I did go with a beautiful red (for the holidays) even though it feels weird to go to the Caribbean without my On the Beach color that has become my go-to for those gorgeous tropical colors.

And, that's it! All I have to share at the moment! LOL. It's time to get that packing list finalized and grab a glass of wine!

Christmas Blessings to All.

[laurspag]

Mousey, any update on your dad?

Anita, I can relate. Although I often discuss the good, there are plenty of things that are less than ideal. I come from a large family, and there are a few people that I don't exactly see eye to eye with. Unfortunately, I keep it inside and try to smile a lot.

For Christmas, when we are all together, I can occupy myself with cooking and so forth...I'm essentially avoiding certain people. That must seem awful! But, I come from a family of 7 so there are a lot of us, a lot of spouses, and a lot of offspring. It's bound to happen.

I was just looking back at the pictures I posted. The lighting with the camera was awful! It gets dark so fast, and then I have to turn on the lights or it is too dark for pictures.

Pam, have a great time! I know what you mean about trying on clothes and it feeling too cold. That happens with me a lot. It seems like when I'm planning out my wardrobe, it's always cool.

Yes, pantyhose are still worn quite a bit. In many types of business, it is required. If you are wearing pants, then you can choose knee highs or "dress" socks. Those things are in our dress code. Most offices don't allow bare legs, unless they are very small and informal. We would be sent home to change!

But I'm digressing. Black stockings seem to come and go when it comes to style. I never particularly liked them and always chose a color that seemed more like a flesh tone. I order mine online so I don't really give it much thought.

I think my daughter needed a pair not too long ago, so she just went to the grocery store and bought L'eggs.

I find that although my daughters like black tights (along with a lot of other colors) with sweater dresses, they will choose pantyhose to wear with everything else. They will go bare legged by choice, but that isn't the best idea for about half the year in central New York. :D Mid spring to mid fall you can go without, but not the rest of the year.

I LOVE red nails. Great choice, Pam! My nails are a complete mess right now. They were a bit shorter a week or so ago, but then they started to chip and split...one of them is completely down to the nail line. Yuck!!! I try to talk my girls into painting my toenails when I need a manicure. I always tell them that I can't see anything over my boobs, lol.

[MJC]

Pam, bon voyage, I hope you have a fabulous time! A tip for pumps sans hose... put some powder in the shoe, and some on the bottom of your foot. Much easier to slide those toes in that way. I honestly can't remember the last time I wore nude pantyhose.

[ChollaChick]

Here in Arizona I haven't worn pantyhose in a probably close to 10 years. A lot of businesses changed the dress code because it's so hot here, so pantyhose aren't required in a lot of places. For me, I'm very glad of it. I am not a fan of anything that I rarely can wear more than once without it sporting a hole or a run and needing to be thrown in the trash. :) I do wear tights in the winter but tights are a very different animal than pantyhose, in my book. Much sturdier and they help to keep my legs warm when it's cold outside.

I'm still working on a good picture of my hair. I thought I had one, but the flash washed the picture out way too much. And now I have a horrible cold (I get one or so a year, I guess this is my one) and look (and feel) a bit like I've been run over by a car, so it will be a couple of days.

We did get our Christmas tree and mantle decorations up and I did get some pictures of it. I just need to get them on the computer and post them. We do color themed trees and this year our colors for the decorations are teal and purple. We have a lot of ornaments that I buy on the after Christmas sales, so we have a lot to choose from. I like trying something different with the tree. I grew up with a very traditional tree with ornaments that we collected over the years, and while I like that it doesn't feel like me. I'm less traditional (though I can be sentimental) and I like doing something a bit different with the decorations.

Now I'm going to take my coughing, hacking body to go drink some nasty cough medicine. Yuck. Why can't that stuff taste like chocolate? Or wine?

[mousey]

ChollaChick,

Hope you feel better real soon!

Pam, I hope you have an awesome cruise.

Loved seeing pictures of the Christmas decorations! Lovely.

Dad's got his good and bad days. Thanksgiving day wasn't particularly a good day for him. Yesterday he wasn't feeling well either. Some days are just better than others. He's lucky to be alive as he's living with this new heart problem, kidney cancer, and bladder cancer. The two cancers are, thankfully, in remission and don't affect how he feels. So that's a good thing.

I've been having so many problems with the house back in FL I won't even go into it.

Plus, the DS was home for Thanksgiving and went to a party where someone stole his cellphone, which for him is a total disaster because he's a songwriter and he had dozens of songs on his phone that he hadn't transferred to his computer yet. It was a great loss for him! He's been making extra money at college by writing songs for friends, sororities, some frats, etc. They'll have a special occasion and want him to write a song for it. He's been making $100 a song so losing some of those songs was a big deal. His attitude was okay I can't do anything about it so I'll just write new songs for them. Thank goodness all his photos were saved. He takes amazing photos with his cellphone. He has an artist's eye and some of his photos are so beautiful it takes my breath away. I may use one of them as our Christmas card this year. It's a fantastic shot of a Malibu sunrise and he used a special app to write the word "Malibu" on the picture. It's just an awesome shot.

That's about it for now, just dealing with a lot of negative stuff. November just wasn't our month!!! Did I mention the DS slipped on the steps at his frat house and had to have 8 stitches over his eyebrow??? I almost slipped on them myself when we were there in Oct. for Family Weekend, they're pretty steep. Thank goodness he has these great thick eyebrows so you can't see the cut. I guess he had sent the DH pictures of the cut before he had it stitched up (which thank goodness the DH didn't show me at the time). But when he was home for Thanksgiving you couldn't even notice the stitches they are so tiny. Someone did a great job on that for him. So yeah, November sucked!!!:(

But...in spite of everything, the DS did great at his interview in NY and will be able to intern at the company next summer if he wants to and we did have a nice Thanksgiving just the three of us. I haven't even given a thought to Christmas yet. I'll probably wait until the end of next week when the DS returns for winter break to put up the tree and decorate. I'm not going to be going on out this year...I just don't have it in me. Also, my wonderful SIL is going to leave up her tree and stockings so that we can celebrate Christmas with my family in Jan. That I'm looking forward to as I love spending time with my family in FL. Great fun times! It's what's keeping me going right now. Edited December 3, 2014 by mousey

[Sailor_Sally]

Pam, Have a great trip .
Cholla Get well soon

I finally decorated on Monday but I have to wait until this week end for a tree . We buy a live tree and I decorate it with ornaments from my travels . I started collecting them years ago and now have a pretty decent selection.We returned from our cruise to Key West & Cozumel last thursday .We had a good time . The food was great and the staff were very friendly . We were on the Brilliance of the Seas .The only thing was they were lacking in was activities but otherwise it was a great ship .

[ChollaChick]

Today is the first day all week that I feel almost normal. This cold is a doozy. Went right into my chest and seems to be hanging out, but at least it's a lot better than it was.

So I am going to try to post some pictures here... I'm not sure if this will work but I'm working on it. This is my holiday decor in the living room. Our color scheme this year is teal and purple.

This is our fireplace.
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This is a closer picture of the mantle and the stockings -- the garland is one that I add to every year. This year some of the lights went bad so I added some purple lights and a set of twinkling LED lights.
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This is our tree. The tree is an artificial one we've had for about 10 years. It's starting to show it's age but what I really like about it is that it has both white and multicolored lights on it and it slowly transitions from white to colored. I actually prefer the white lights with this color scheme and that's what the camera was able to catch.
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We have a half wall that separates the kitchen from the living room and I decorate it a bit for the holidays. This year I just have put the teal votives on the candleholder.
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And lastly, I added lights and some teal flowers to a flower arrangement I keep in the living room all year.

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Next to try to get a picture of my hair. :)

[laurspag]

Beautiful decorations! I love how you went with a color theme, but it's not overdone...it just looks very pulled together.

Do you have anything that you just can't part with? I'm generally not the type but since a bunch of our Christmas things belonged to our parents, we can't seem to part with them. They have to be out and about. It seems to work though.

Yes, we need to see your hair!

Mousey, you had a tough month. I always try to look at the plus side, and dwell on that. I recall that you mentioned a while back that your dad was along in years, yes? That is always hard.

Has the phone company been able to try and track his phone? Is it an Iphone and did he back up using Icloud?

I hope you can get yourself in the spirit of things. Keep your chin up.

Anita, I hope to see pictures of your decorations soon!

SailorSally, we had a real tree for quite some time. When just went back to the artificial tree about two years ago. It works for us, but I do miss going to pick the tree. The local optimist club sold trees about a mile from us, and we would take the dog and go pick one out. It was always a lot of fun.

Do any of you bake? I do...I call it marathon baking because I don't like to freeze the cookies so I bake for two or three days straight. I'm changing things up a bit this year, and making less. I'm also going to add fudge and some candy as well.

We have the work Christmas party this Sunday. My daughter bought me a dress last year for Christmas which is perfect, from the party perspective. It isn't exactly the right color red...but it is red. :D I will take pictures! It's quite a grand event. Shrimp and all sorts of appetizers, then a sit down meal where you start with soup, then salad, then your choice of fish, chicken or steak. Then dessert. I guess I can't eat for the rest of the week then.

[ChollaChick]

Laurie -- I do have some things that I put out for sentimental reasons. My mom had a nativity set that she made (my mom ran a ceramic studio for most of my childhood) that I have and I put it out. I haven't gotten it out yet but likely will this weekend. My DH and I don't have kids, but we have pets and treat them as children. We collect an ornament for each pet when they pass. So each year it's very sentimental when we put up the pet ornaments. We actually keep the pet ornaments out all year (they sit on top of our center channel speaker) because we love them so much. They are our ties to the pets that have passed away.

I love to bake. I always make too much and they seem to get old, but this year I am taking them (as many as I can get away from my husband) to work. I work in a police station and there are always hungry people looking for cookies. I like to do a day (or two) of marathon baking too. I figure if I'm going to make a disaster of the kitchen might as well go all out. I make multiple kinds then on the same day. It's fun. I usually listen to Christmas music and sometimes have even gotten together with a friend to do it. This year I think I'm going to make snickerdoodles and chocolate truffles for sure, and then... I'm still trying to decide. Anyone got a great recipe for cookies they want to share?

[ChollaChick]

And Laurie -- I'm one of the red gals, so I say if it's red it works. I love love love red.

Did I tell you my hair is like va-va-voom red now? It's RED. I love it.

[MJC]

Here are my holiday photos. I'm a decorating lightweight compared to you guys, but then I live in an apartment so I don't have a lot of room.

Our tree is called a slimline, and there is usually a chair here. The painting is one my mom did, she was going to throw it away because it was "only a study."

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Normally we have blue glass ball ornaments and blue ribbon on the tree, but since miss kitty came to live with us those things have stayed in the box. My parents started giving us each an ornament when we were children, and then gave us the collection when we got our first homes. So, they reflect our childhood interests: in my case, I have lots of horses, Barbies, angels, and dancers. In this photo you can also see the penguin we got after visiting Antarctica and a tuxedo cat that we got when our second cat was little. On the sentimental side, the sputnik ornament was made by my great uncle who was a commercial artist in LA, and the gold bell was from the set of ornaments my parents purchased for their first Christmas together.

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This is our dining area buffet. The lithograph is called "Solstice" and believe it or not, I bought it on our first cruise (after mocking the idea of an art show on a cruise ship for months before :0). I love the colors in it. The brass candlesticks were given to me by my grandma for my wedding shower. The funky Christmas trees also come from my LA uncle. We put all our Christmas cards here, too. You can see we don't have many yet! For the table I put a red candle in our Waterford candle holder that we got in Ireland, and I hang a ball of mistletoe from the center of our chandelier. It's the first area you see when you come into the apartment, so it's very festive looking.

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Here is the beautiful menorah my MIL gave us for our 10th anniversary. I got these cool candles for it this year. It is supposed to be in a window, so we put it in the kitchen on the granite so as not to burn the place down. I love my shivakashi granite, it is a beautiful peach color.

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I also have a pretty all-white Father Christmas that hangs on the outside of our front door, and that's pretty much it for this year.

[MJC]

Back to smoky eyes for a moment.

I'm going out to dinner with colleagues of DH, to a fancy steakhouse. So, here is what I'm wearing and how I did my purple smoky eye.

This sheer top has some black in it, so I'm wearing it with skinny black pants and my black suede wedges:

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This necklace is long but I doubled it up for the photo and I kinda like how it looks that way too. It looks plastic-y in the photo but is much nicer IRL:

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As usual, my eyes look much more intense IRL. Here's what I did. I used Stila liquid eyeliner in Moss first. It is a very dark green, so it looks like black but not as harsh. I actually lined my lower lid very slightly too, which I normally wouldn't do for daytime. Then just above that but not over it, Stila smudge crayon in Pink Violet, which is not nearly as bright as it looks or sounds. I used my finger to smudge it in the crease and the outer corner of my lid. Then my favorite orangey tan in the inner lid. Black/brown mascara, mauve lipstain. Ta da.

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Now that it's getting dark, I'll see whether my eyes need more punch before I go. Color changes so much from day to night.

[ChollaChick]

Margaret - love your decorations and the makeup. You do some of the best smoky eyes. My eyes are very dark brown, and I tend to do my smoky eyes in purples or greens. They make the brown of my eyes pop much more than brown shadows which sometimes make my eyes look muddy. Your outfit sounds perfect and I love the colors in your top. Have lots of fun!!

[Anita Latte]

I love seeing everyone's Christmas!

Last year...my after Christmas stock up during the sale was all about lights...I've started the inside, but I'm pretty much done with the outside. Margaret...in an apt, you can't really decorate the outside...does anyone else do their outside? I just love Christmas lights...anyway...

It's not easy to get a photo of the lights. I'm not sure if I have the setting right on my camera, but you get the idea. Red was one of the colors that I could buy in bulk on clearance...there are 7 strands on the tree. I had to climb the tree to wrap some of the limbs...I've had some fun talks with my neighbors as they pause to talk to me today! Unfortunately, one of the light strands isn't lighting up now for the upper half.

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Here's a closer view of our classic Southern front porch. Icicle lights above and garland lights below...fun candle lights in the second story windows...and a hint of the candy canes lining the walkway:

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You can see the Christmas tree through the window...it isn't decorated yet. There are two portable lawn chairs still out on the porch in front of the window...I should move those!

[IMG]http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq34/misscurlyfeathertoes/Earth%20Thread/P1090788_zps789ea593.jpg[/IMG]:

In the backyard, there a "natural area" where there are many trees that were here before the house was built (built in 90s)...and we put the deer in that area. We can fully see them from our family room, kitchen eating area, kitchen and formal dining room (which are all along the back of the house). You can also see our backyard neighbors that have added lights to their deck and stairs. The houses here have basements and they have a walk out basement, so the deck is on the main floor and the stairs go down to the yard. Normally we can't see these neighbors quite as well because of the trees...but the leaves have fallen:

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The separation is greater than this photo feels.

I do have some flicker candle sticks in the windows that face the side yard. We have a side entry garage and so those candals greet us when we get home...and also...anyone driving down our street can easily see that side of the house.

I'll be decorating on and off this weekend. Company Christmas party tomorrow night!

It's also a big weekend for us in fantasy football. Anyone else play? First week of playoffs is this weekend. We are the top seed in our conference headed for our super bowl! Very exciting stuff. LOL!