A Little Bit of Beauty for Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Day, and to be honest, we are still enjoying Christmastime.  It's always nice to have a day to just be together, and enjoy the feeling of the holidays.  In our house, that usually includes a fire in the fireplace, which makes it just seem that much  more cozy.

Many lovely gifts were given and received as well.  The Tim and I were somewhat more restrained than usual in our gifts to each other, as we decided that the major part of our gifts would be new chairs for our living room.  (We have identified the chairs we like, now we just want them to go on sale ...)

My sister Nancy who lives in California has had issues over the past few years sending packages through the USPS.  For whatever reason, the packages never arrive, or arrive damaged, etc.  So this year she decided that she was sending our gifts directly from Nordstrom.  As it turns out, hers were the only beauty-related gifts I received and they are wonderful as far as I'm concerned.  My box contained two small bottles:

This nail polish, called Piece of My Heart.  I've heard of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes and products, but have never tried them, so I am excited to both receive and try this.  (Though not right away, since I currently am wearing OPI A Ruby for Rudolph, since it's Christmastime.)

She also sent this:

It's a topcoat, called Addicted to Speed, which is supposed to be a quick-drying, setting coat for your manicure.  Nancy and I agreed that neither of us would be likely to buy this for ourselves, due to the cost, but that it was great to receive as a gift.  She knew about it after receiving a bottle from a friend for her birthday.

My hands and nails are not particularly great-looking, but I try to take care of them, and I love nail polish.  I have even found a system that keeps the polish on and - most of the time - not chipping for as long as 5 days, so I try to polish my nails somewhat regularly.

The fact that my sister even bothers to send gifts is gift enough, as she has kids of her own, and grandkids to buy for.  Getting something fun like this is just an extra treat.

I'll let you know once I use the polish how I feel about it.  But it's looking like even if the rest of me doesn't look much different in the new year, my hands will!

Decorations and Ornaments

With a week until Christmas Day itself, I thought I'd share some of our decorations and ornaments.

I hope you enjoy your special Christmastime things as much as we do ours!

In Which I Make a Liar Out of Myself

If you read the post previous to this one, you know that I talked about how we seldom do anything Christmas-y together anymore, due to The Tim's schedule.

So only a week or so after writing about that, what did we do?  Well, you can read all about it here.

Only 10 days left until Christmas Day - I hope you are enjoying Christmastime as much as I am!

Hooray, Christmastime Has Arrived!

Oh how I love Christmastime!  Ever since I was a little kid, and even now when I am often surrounded by holiday curmudgeons.

I was thinking about it the other day, and realized that I love reading and/or hearing about Christmas or holiday parties.  The special foods, clothes, decorations, all sound so festive and fun.

And then I realized - I never really go anywhere during Christmastime anymore.  When both of us had regular, Monday through Friday, 9-5 jobs, we always made it a point to do at least one "Christmas" thing every year - i.e., a concert, a tour.  It was fun, and really added to the celebration.  We also used to go to midnight Mass, which seemed so magical.  Occasionally, we would actually be invited to a party, or a dinner, and once or twice even hosted one ourselves.

Then The Tim got laid off from his "regular" job, and ended up working in retail.  Which was great, since we both need to work, and as it turns out, he's really good at it.  But it means our Christmastime events calendar is greatly reduced.  Not just that he has to work evenings and weekends, but since he was promoted a few years ago, he has to work six shifts a week during the two weeks before Christmas.  So it's hard to do anything extra, because even if our schedules can be worked out, he is just so tired.  Which is 100% understandable.  And we don't go to midnight Mass anymore, because no place around here does it anymore.  Plus, he works on Christmas Eve, usually getting home around 8:00 p.m., and we would rather have a nice Christmas Eve dinner and relaxing evening.

I'm not complaining, though I do miss a lot of it.  But the thing that is weird, is that I still love the idea of buying a new lipstick, or pair of shoes, or something that is special to wear for Christmas - which of course, is funny, because I don't have any place special to wear those things!

As a matter of fact, today I was reading a magazine, and saw a blazer-type jacket with just a few sparkles here and there (I don't know if it was sequined, of if they were something else), and I thought, "Oh wouldn't that be fun to have!"  And it probably would, but *where* would I wear it????!!!

So for now, I will enjoy my Christmastime social events vicariously, and save myself some money at the same time.  Not really a bad deal, and since I am lazy, it's actually kind of win-win ... ;-)

Guess what?  Only 19 days left!!!