Walking the Red Carpet in Vintage

You know the awards season wouldn't be complete without Charlotte walking the red carpet at home a few times. Sunday night during the Oscars pre-game show, she strutted her stuff in my vintage prom dress.

In case you were wondering what it looked like in its heyday, here I am wearing it circa 1989 (all I could find on the fly). I remember tucking in the one side strap, just to "make it mine." Good thing I did, because I remember someone else at prom had the exact same dress, but wore it the way it was supposed to look. 

I see I survived the 80s without going to prom with big hair, just a big bow holding it back. That's what is sticking out the sides at the back. I certainly did have big hair otherwise. :) I guess that hair bow matched the humungous one on my hip. At least it's black!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas in Almost February

Happy New Year! I'm so behind I'm going to focus on the holidays first.

We spent Thanksgiving at the lake house, starting with a classically American meal, fast food Chinese.

I "dressed up" in jeans and a Native American inspired shirt.

Russell deep fried the turkey. We just started doing this a year or two ago, and what a difference it makes in the day. It takes only a few hours, and tastes delicious. No more spending the entire day int the kitchen.

What American meal is complete without a bow and arrow activity afterwards.

Ooh, so close, but it only nicked the apple.

Finally, success!

Before we knew it, it was Christmas. I wish I could say this is how I spent most of it, but I cherished those quiet moments when I could.

And our "elf-on-the-shelf" Sydney arrived. She went fishing for trout in the sink, and lo and behold, she caught one!

Our tradition of decorating gingerbread houses continued. (As well as the tradition of making ourselves sick sampling the decorations.)

Charlotte and I attended a holiday event at a museum downtown (with her friend Sofia).

Since Sally and Philip were traveling to England for Christmas, they visited Raleigh early in the month and we had a "Christmas" dinner together.

Russell and I attended a number of holiday soirees (here's a little selfie of me). 

One party was called "Lashes and 'Staches," where the women wore falsh eyelashes and the men fake mustaches.

The holidays finally arrived! Charlotte and I baked my dad a Queen's Cake from the recipe at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery in Colonial Williamsburg.

Another Christmas dinner, another tablescape...

A homemade apple pie from my mom's recipe was a big hit. It doesn't look pretty, but it sure tasted great!

I was so glad to have my Dad and Emma here with us this year.

Emma brought a favorite dip of ours, but this year she got creative with the presentation.

And then, like that, it was over. The kids did claim it was the "best Christmas ever." Put a smile on my face for sure!

Hope your holidays were as lovely as ours.