Elephants Can Remember Christmas Sweater Weather: The Gift of Peace and Mirth

Boots: Wild Fable, Target

Tee: Celebrate, Kohl's

Bag: Holiday Arcade, Macy's; Ring: PinkBopp, Etsy

Barrette: Claire's, CVS

Glasses and platter: Gifted

Sweater: Gem Holiday Sweater, Kohl's; Boots: Simply Vera, Kohl's

Bag: Dolls Kill; Bangle: ZAD, Zulily

Headband: Candie's, Kohl's

Ornaments: Hallmark, Lillian Vernon

Sweater: So, Kohl's; Boots: Olivia Miller, Kohl's

Santa and sign: Michaels

Bag: Holiday Arcade, Macy's

Barrette and necklace (you know which ones!): The Tote Trove

Garland: Michaels; Ornaments: Target, Michaels

Boots: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Santas: West End Garage, Cape May; Elf: Michaels

Shirt: Madden Girl, Kohl's

Island of Misfit Toys: Gifted

Bag: Holiday Arcade, Macy's

Ornaments: Lilian Vernon, Hallmark

Necklaces: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Christmas sweaters are always a thing.  But you seldom hear about Christmas tee shirts.  Which is why I was a little befuddled by the candy cane-print tee in the first outfit.  Still, I loved the print, and at $4.99, I couldn't pass it up.  So I layered it over a turtleneck and headed out to LabCorp as if I were bound for a white elephant party.  Which, in some ways, I was.        

Surprise, you (by which I mean me) have slightly high cholesterol!  But this elephant (again, me) already suspected that.  So that's where the gallows humor and elephant references end (not me, but Agatha Christie).  

Yep, the Christmas countdown always sets me on edge, cramming my head full of querulous questions.  Will I ever finish wrapping these presents?  Did I buy my niece the same Barbie doll two years in a row?  Should I put something else outside besides my paltry palm tree?  Basically, it all amounts to, did I do enough?  And the answer is usually no.  

But it shouldn't be.  Because the holidays are hard, and anything anyone does should suffice.

So this year, which is our first with Char Bar, I'm going to try to give myself the gift of a break.  Strangely, it's a gift that everyone always tries to give me but that I have trouble accepting.  And if there's anything I should teach my daughter, then it's that she should give herself this gift too.        

That and Christmas comic relief that comes in the form of a tee shirt.

Getting into the Spirit: Pics of Christmas Past

As you know, I've never been one to bust out my Christmas decorations early.  Or even on time.  I usually put them up at the last minute and let them linger until Valentine's Day.  And the same will probably be true this year, despite having espied this Spirit Christmas truck back in October.  Anyway, it's not just decking the halls that trips me up.  Sometimes I get so busy with holiday hoopla that I nix some stuff completely.  So I wasn't surprised when I found Christmas pics that I never posted last year.  Here they are now, hopefully transforming last year's procrastination into this year's inspiration and getting me into the Christmas spirit. 

An arrangement I made from clearance bin finds.  I promise it looks better in person. 😏

Me on my staircase, about three months pregnant.

Cape May.

More Cape May.

And last but not least, the Lady Lumberjack Necklace

Thinking Pink and Growing Rainbows

Dress: Speechless, Kohl's

Shoes: Mix No. 6, DSW

Denim shirt: Marshalls; Bag: Ella & Elly, Zulily

As my baby bump burgeons, I'm phasing belts and jeans out of my daily wardrobe.  So I was psyched to unearth my old but trusty black A-line dress to wear to my belated b-day celebration, as well as a skirt and leggings for a doctor's appointment.  Rediscovering these long-forgotten garments has been fun, presenting me with a new kind of fashion challenge.  

Speaking of which, making this Kooky Candy Necklace was another everything-old-is-new-again experience.  Partly because I haven't been crafting much lately, partly because I used old rhinestones I found when decluttering my craft room. 

As its name suggests, Kooky Candy is big and weird and a little bit wonky -- but that's okay because it's mine.  

The other new accessory I'm sporting is this nifty '90s-style scrunchie, which I love but (obviously) didn't make:

Scrunchie: Classic Alpaca, West End Garage

I bought it after Christmas at the West End Garage in Cape May.  It's from a small business called Classic Alpaca, as evidenced by its critter-shaped packaging.  Which in and of itself is cute enough to tack up in my craft room.

There's always space for another civilian in the land of pink and rainbows.

Cozy Christmas Crime Time

Christmas can be murder.  Wrapping, baking, and decorating are enough to make even Santa's helpers head for hibernation.  That's why it's so satisfying to leave it all behind and disappear into a Christmas-themed murder mystery.  There's something soothing about sitting back as the heroines deal with last-minute guests plus all manner of pests and put up their trees at the eleventh hour.  In other words, whatever stress fest you've got going on will seem peaceful in comparison to catching a killer.  Here are two Christmas cozies I enjoyed this week:    

In Jenn McKinlay's Sugar Plum Poisoned, cupcake queen Mel DeLaura née Cooper is already inundated with holiday orders when she takes on a baking gig for singer Shelby Vaughn.  But then Shelby's shifty manager bites the big one, and rumor has it that it might be because he bit into one of Mel's cupcakes.  What's a baker to do?  Investigate!  Well, that and prepare to host fifty-plus of her nearest and dearest for Christmas.  Both make for a nerve-wracking -- and entertaining -- Noel.  

In Lee Hollis's Death of a Christmas Caterer, food columnist Hayley Powell is in a pickle when the caterer she hired for the Island Times Christmas party is murdered.  Now the pressure's on to discover the killer before Santa slides down the chimney.  As if hunting down a homicidal maniac isn't hard enough, Hayley's also juggling not one, not two, but three suitors.  Will one of them turn out to be the wise man she wants, or just another elf to shelve?  Only time -- and mistletoe -- will tell.

Before I go, here's something else cozy: Christmas in Cape May.  This pic's from four years ago, but the magic remains.  

As far as I know, there were no murders.    

Panhandle Scandal

Vacations mean Mary Kay Andrews.  After all, you may recall that last spring in Cape May I picked up Sunset Beach.  And I enjoyed it so much that during last month's trip to Ocean City, I bought Hello, Summer.  Of course, I didn't get around to reading it until last week.  But then, anywhere you can disappear into a book counts as a vacation -- at least in my book, hehe.   

As with its predecessor, Hello, Summer's deceptively tranquil cover harbors a whodunit.  And although its vibe isn't quite cozy, I found it to be comforting.  Ace reporter Conley Hawkins plays career Russian roulette and loses, landing back at her family's small-town Florida weekly.  She's had enough of The Silver Bay Beacon, as well as her new boss-slash-sister, when she and boy-next-door Sean "Skelly" Kelly stumble upon the body of a congressman.  Investigating the good ol' boy's death becomes Conley's raison d'etre, and soon she's writing for NBC and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as The Beacon.  But Silver Bay has a lot to say about that.  Big sis Grayson wishes Conley would keep her eyes on her own paper, her grandmother is one fainting spell away from the hospital, and Skelly, although supportive, worries that his charms are no match for a hot story.  Will Conley be able to have it all?  Or will she lose it all looking for answers?  

Andrews entertains with intrigue and wit as she helps us find out.       

Cape Keepsakes

A vacation's not a vacation without a souvenir -- or two or three.  And this is my Cape May trifecta:  

- Postcard of Congress Hall (framed once I got home)

- Handmade blue ribbon brooch from the artisan paradise that is West End Garage

- Lemon lotion from Beach Plum Farm      

Every time I look at them, I'll think of shopping and shellfish.  

Books We Read on Vacation

When I packed for Cape May, I restrained myself by tossing in just one book.  Because you don't go on vacation to read, right?  But the husband goes to sleep before I do, which meant that I had some prime reading time on my hands.  So the first night, I delved into the second half of Emily Henry's Happy Place.  As you know, I've read and loved all of Henry's books (People We Meet on Vacation is my favorite), and Happy Place is no different.  Henry's dialogue is second to none, and in Happy Place, she's at her wittiest.  Her characters' conversations crackle with pithy puns and pop culture references sure to delight millennials and beyond (because technically, I'm a millennial too, albeit on the oldster side).  

So, what's this must-read all about?  Simply stated, it's a second chance romance.  Harriet is a stressed-out surgical resident in San Francisco, and Wyn is a laidback but grieving woodworker in Montana.  They're thrown together for one last magical Maine summer with their college besties before the sale of their beloved lake cottage.  So there are hijinks and, of course, all the feels.  Plus a lot about growing pains and what it really means to go after what you want.  It truly is a happy place, one that delivers a deceptively deep message.  Because happiness isn't for anyone content to stay in the shallow end of the lake.  

Needless to say, I finished it in one sitting -- and instantly felt bereft.  I do not like being without a book.  And I didn't know of any bookstores in Cape May.  So the next afternoon, when the husband and I wandered into the hotel coffee shop, I was ecstatic to see a few books on offer.  

There was a novelization of a Hallmark movie, a depressing-looking biography, and a celebutante novel by Lauren Conrad that I almost went for because I was, at that very moment, wearing not one but three LC Lauren Conrad items.  But there were also two titles by Mary Kay Andrews, an author I'd heard of but never read. 

I chose the lone copy of Sunset Beach, which turned out to be a murder mystery about an offed Florida hotel maid.  (The irony of this being sold in a hotel was not lost on me, nor was the title.  Because although this Sunset Beach is, as I've said, in Florida, there's one in Cape May too.)  Anyway, for a book chosen under duress, it was pretty good, and I read a third of it that night.  Not only did I get my fiction fix, but I might have even found a new go-to author!

Book adventures -- you never know where they'll take you.

Cape May Getaway

Sometimes you just have to get away.  At least that's what the husband and I decided when we realized that we hadn't been on a trip, just the two of us, in almost a decade.  We didn't want to go too far away, and we didn't want to go anywhere new in case we didn't like it.  So the husband said,  "What about Cape May?"  Victorian houses, quaint shops, and seafood?  I was there.  I booked us a room at Congress Hall and marked it on our calendar.  

Yet this past Wednesday, when it was time to set off for New Jersey's southernmost point, I began to have second thoughts.  It was cold and rainy, more like March than May.  Still, I swapped out my packed clothes for warmer ones and ordered myself to have fun.  Usually, when I order myself to do stuff, it's dishes and jumping jacks, so my chances for success seemed pretty good.  

When we rolled onto Washington Street, it was raining even harder.  "What do you want to do?" the husband asked.  That, at least, was a no-brainer.  "Cape May Fish Market," I said.  In no time, we were devouring our go-to, butter-drenched seafood rolls: shrimp, lobster, and crab for me, and scallops for him.  It's one of the best things I've ever eaten.  

That lunch set the tone for the next two days.  Being on vacation in the middle of the week, during the off-season, while it rained off and on, seemed like a decadent adventure.   

For once I wore (mostly) comfy clothes, focusing on my favorite color, yellow.  I got a kick out of how I matched Congress Hall.  

We took nature walks, which is the husband's thing, but once upon a time, it was my thing too.  I make jokes about being indoorsy, but even now there's something exciting and fairy-tale-esque about discovering a path in the forest.  And we wouldn't have been able to enjoy it if it were warmer, what with UV rays and mosquitos.  

We climbed the lighthouse.  If I look grim, then it's probably because I got a little weirded out on the deck.  It was very windy, and I was grateful to be back on solid ground.  

We even found not one but two places to spread our photography wings:

And finally, we shopped and ate more seafood!  

My favorite shop was the West End Garage, a trove of vintage and handmade treasures.  I couldn't believe how cool it was, or that in all the times I'd been to Cape May, I'd never been there.  Stall after stall of unusual décor, furniture, clothes, jewelry, and anything else you could imagine wound before us, not unlike those forest paths.  Here's a stall featuring vintage toys.  

I almost went for the set of lemon and orange bobbleheads but instead got a gorgeous brooch made of ribbons and charms (more on that later).  The husband chose something from the same artisan, a bowtie made of red and tan feathers.

So all in all, we had a wonderful time, full of fun and relaxation.  Cape May, we give you two arms up!