Christmas 2019

Sartorial Saturday–Have Yourself a Kitschy Little Christmas

A few years ago, I was thrilled to order the “Kitschy Christmas” skirt from The Oblong Box Shop, my first Christmas print piece. This year, when they previewed a new version of the skirt in green, I knew I needed to add it to my wardrobe, even though I normally wouldn’t buy a duplicate print, despite the colorway being vastly different.

In the time since I bought the red version of the skirt, the material has changed slightly. It’s still polyester (my least favorite thing about the skirt), but the weave is far superior, and the skirt flows much better.

Of course, accessories are important. I decided to run with the pink and green theme, which is perfect, because I have a lovely new Erstwilder brooch, that reminds me of Lucy’s request in A Charlie Brown Christmas: “A great, big, shiny, aluminum Christmas tree…maybe painted pink!” It’s even more beautiful than you can imagine, with lovely silver threads garlanding across it. As always, I added a stack of Splendette Duchess Bangles, this time in green and pink, plus pink earrings, a favorite necklace, and my new favorite belt, featuring a bow:

I love how perfectly my mint Sabrina top from Pinup Girl Clothing goes with the skirt!

This is definitely a new favorite Christmas look, and I’m going to wear it as often as possible in the coming weeks!

A Markel Family St. Nicholas Day

Time for another installment of “A Markel Family Holiday!” St. Nicholas Day has always been one of favorite days in Advent, so I thought I’d share what we do to make it special.

The day always begins with stockings. We keep it simple…chocolate coins, oranges, and a new ornament for each child to hang on the tree. They’ve each received an ornament every year since their births, so they will have a nice collection to start their own trees when they have homes of their own someday!

We always read Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend from CPH. It’s a fantastic book!

And of course we do our Jesse Tree reading for the day. This year, the commemoration for St. Nicholas fell on the day we read about Jacob:

In the afternoon, we decorate the tree. I put it up and hung the lights almost a month ago, but we always wait for St. Nicholas Day for the addition of the ornaments.

We enjoy hot wassail while we decorate:

Some years, I make a special dinner. This year, we tried a Turkish fish stew and flat bread, to honor the area of the world from which St. Nicholas comes.

And of course we have evening prayers by the light of the Advent wreath.

I really love this holiday, and the special ways we celebrate it!

Garden Glow 2019

Last night was the member preview night for the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Christmas event, Garden Glow. This is one of my favorite holiday events of the year, and even though we’ve had our family Christmas tree up for a few weeks, this always marks the true beginning of the celebratory Christmas season for me.

As always, I loved that there were familiar elements, and a few new surprises, as well. And, as always, today I’m sad at the thought that I have to wait an entire year (more or less) before I get to go back to Garden Glow again!