Wednesday 28 December 2016

Nowhere fast

Every year when the month of December is in sight, I start looking forward to Christmas! Get away with you, I can hear you think, you don't even like Christmas. You admitted as much in your last post! I can almost see the eye rolls in my mind's eye ...

Well, it isn't so much Christmas itself I am looking forward to, but the ensuing holidays, as our office always closes for a week or so.







As the weeks leading up to Christmas are usually the busiest of the whole year, I breathed a sigh of relief when last Friday I closed the door upon the mountains of paperwork and the miniature Christmas tree I put up to humour my Christmas loving colleague.








Nine days without any plans whatsoever except not getting up at the crack of dawn and not having to live under the tyranny of the clock. No overcrowded buses and no Christmas Zombies ...  Pure bliss!


Apart from a quick dash to the shops on Saturday, to pick up an order, we'd planned to stay firmly ensconced inside Dove Cottage, especially as the weather was far from inviting us to venture outside.

Indeed, we were going nowhere fast!

On Christmas Day, we have our own tradition, which involves lounging around in our pyamas for most of the day.


Not any old pyamas, mind you. We prefer doing things in style! I wore a full length vintage quilted nylon dressing gown from Think Twice and Jos's chique dressing gown is a vintage St. Michael one found in a charity shop!

The vintage slip I wore underneath was another charity shop find.


We weren't the only ones in pyamas and no, I don't mean Phoebe ...


These 1960s and early 1970s Mattel dolls are dressed in nightwear of the era!








We started the day as we meant to go on, with a leisurely breakfast, followed by a menu of daytime television, reading and listening to some music.














Elvis's Christmas album, which Jos, who used to be a huge fan at the time, bought in the1950s, had its yearly outing. Which is more than enough, I should say!


By dinner time, we dressed up for a festive meal in honour of my dad. No special outfit was planned. I just stood in front of my wardrobe and pulled out this orange polka dotted dress, which I combined with a navy blue cardigan. As a nod to Christmas I pinned on a sparkly reindeer brooch.



Speaking of sparkly, we started off dinner with drinks served in vintage Babycham glasses.


As a starter, we made a retro-style prawn cocktail, which we served in vintage beer glasses found at my dad's!

We also used my parents' dinner service for the first time, which I admit felt a bit weird. I even got a lump in my throat taking the plates out of our cupboard as, after all, this time last year we were still doing the same thing at my dad's ...


Ending this post on a positive note, we're raising our glasses (only Jos couldn't wait) to spending Christmas exactly how we like it.

Hope yours was everything you expected it to be.

Cheers!

35 comments:

  1. Looks like a good time was had by all ( well, the two of you)

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    1. Yes indeed, we had a good time, a very relaxing day! xxx

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  2. How lovely to see you keeping up the vintage style in your pjs. I feel very Hollywood when I have my quilted dressing gown and nylon nightie on haha.
    I'm glad it's almost over I'm a bit of a Grinch really.
    First anniversaries are always hard and I hope next year it will be easier.
    In the meantime happy new year to you both and I hope 2017 is a happy and healthy one for you xxx

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    1. Quilted dressing gowns and nylon nighties rule! Wishing you and Philip a happy and healthy 2017 too! xxx

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  3. How lovely you got to do exactly what you wanted for the day, I'm not sure I would have bothered to get dressed if it was me! x x

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    1. In the past, we didn't dress for dinner, but we didn't want to spoil the delicate vintage nightwear ... xxx

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  4. Aw! What a wonderful way to spend Christmas. I'm glad you avoided being a zombie, and that you enjoyed it in vintage style.

    All the best for 2017!

    Happy thrifting ;)

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    1. All the best for 2017 for you too, and may all your thrifting wishes come true! xxx

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  5. Vintage PJ's-now that's stylish! I haven't thought about Babycham in forever-those glasses are great fun.

    The long break sounds wonderful, and well deserved.

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    1. Thanks Goody! We charity shopped those Babycham glasses many years ago for next to nothing. Now they are quite hard to find ... xxx

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  6. Happy Christmas! Your day sounded like the perfect tonic for a busy December. In our house, we also have a tradition of festive pyjamas, only ours are nowhere near as fabulous as yours! Cheers to your dad x

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    1. Thank you Donna. I have to admit that our festive PJ's haven't always been this stylish ... Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a Happy 2017! xxx

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  7. such a lovely attitude!, I love particularly that you took a pic of both you in your cool gowns!, that's fabulousness!!!
    Your xmas celebration looks amazing!!
    besos & fun

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    1. Thanks Monica. I'm not a fan of selfies, but getting Phoebe to take a photo was out of the question ;-) Mil besos & feliz Año Nuevo! xxx

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  8. Hope you and Jos both had a wonderful Christmas :-D Loving your choice of loungewear for the day. Happy hols xxx

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    1. Thank you, and I hope your Christmas was wonderful too. xxx

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  9. so sweet and lovely at dove cottage!!! <3
    and stylish too!!!
    we spent our day at the cottage too - it was torrential rain and storm outside - but our "pajamas" were huge woolen sweaters, warm leggings/joggers and thick socks :-)
    love the portrait of you both and jos not waiting with his drink!!!
    cheers lovelys!! xxxxxx

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    1. Thank you Beate, we are doing our best to keep up the vintage spirit! I bet it was really cosy inside bahnwaerterhaeuschen too, with the storm raging outside. xxx

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  10. What a lovely way to spend Christmas. Jos looks very suave in his Marks & Spencer dressing gown and I don't blame him for downing his drink! In our family, we always play the Bert Kaempfert xmas LP, it's tradition and has been since the 70's.
    I had a lump in my throat too as I watched the carols At Kings College on Xmas Eve on tv remembering all the years that mum watched them, singing along whilst peeling the sprouts.
    xx

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    1. Thank you Fiona. You should have seen Jos's face when I told him he looks suave ... And isn't that a coincidence: we have the Bert Kaempfert Xmas LP too. It's actually the only Xmas album I can reasonably tolerate. We have quite a collection of charity shopped Bert Kaempfert albums ... xxx

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  11. That's how to do dressing down - in vintage nightwear. You both look fantastic (and I adore what the dolls are wearing, too!)
    When I worked for a living that's the thing I liked about Xmas, no work, no 4.30am get-ups and the dreaded Xmas zombies.
    Enjoy every minute of your break, you deserve it. xxx

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    1. Thank you Vix! We have really enjoyed our break so far, without any plans or time restrictions. Pure bliss! xxx

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  12. Those dolls are amazing! But the glasses oh my god I love the so much. Your loungewear is gorgeous too I splurged this year and got a 1930s lame robe made that im going to wear new years eve nice loungewear is the best luxury

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    1. Thanks Kate! Those Babycham glasses are super cute, aren't they. We've had them for many years, but we only use them at Xmas. A 1930s robe is a great item to splurge on. xxx

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  13. Those are the most stylish pyjamas! Looks wonderful. Happy New Year!!

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  14. How wonderful to have all that time off with no commitments or duties. Even better that you get to share the time with someone like-minded. A leisurely breakfast in your pjs sounds like the perfect start to Xmas day. Well actually it all sounds perfect including a bit of Elvis!! Yes, that must have felt emotional, first year and everything. Glad you got through it ok xxx

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    1. Thanks Tania, it was a welcome break although being back at work since Monday I'm already asking myself: what break? xxx

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  15. It is hard having a first Christmas without someone, I can't blame you for having a lump in your throat. Even this year there are things we didn't do because it would be too hard.

    Look at you, parading round in your nightie, you saucy thing!

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    1. There are going to be lots of "firsts" this year too, but it is getting a bit easier, as I'm feeling less raw. As for the nightie, I have a pretty vintage babydoll one as well, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to parade in it in front of the camera ... xxx

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  16. My nan used to have a babycham deer, no idea what happened to it though, which is a shame.

    I'm glad you had a lovely Christmas... I sort of want to see Phoebe in some jimjams now xxx

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    1. Would have loved to see that Babycham deer! As for Phoebe, if I tried to put her in jimjams, I'm sure a visit to A&E would be required ... xxx

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  17. It's lovely that you do it in your own way, I think so many people do what they feel they should do instead of what they want to do.
    The day sounds perfect.

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    1. It really was a perfect day, and a great start to the rest of the Christmas break! xxx

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  18. wearing PJs sound slike a great Christmas tradition to me.

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