Outfit: Christmas Day

WARNING: PHOTO OVERLOAD!

Christmas Day was very different for me this year. We’ve always been creatures of habit in my family, and Christmas Day ever since I can remember has followed a pretty standard pattern. Waking up in bed to see if Santa had been (you don’t want to know how long we still made our parents sneak into our room after we’d gone to sleep…) opening my stocking with my sisters (yes, I still get one, what of it?) a lazy morning on the couch opening presents followed by a huge dinner cooked by my Dad and an evening slobbing out in front of the TV. It’s pretty much cookie cutter, and we couldn’t really imagine doing it any other way. There has been the odd occasion in the past where I did something different on Christmas Day, and found myself feeling a little sad and disappointed not to be with my family, following our well rehearsed routine. So I was a little torn this year, because I was sharing it with someone new, so compromises had to be made!

We were both clear on three things – we wanted to wake up in our new home on Christmas Morning, we wanted to be together, and we didn’t want to spend the day travelling back and forth, so the decision on how to split things came to a natural conclusion – my brother typically brings my nieces up to my parents house on Boxing Day and I wanted to see them too, so the obvious thing was to spend Christmas Day in Loughborough, and drive back to Birmingham on Boxing Day, which made me feel slightly apprehensive that I’d be missing my beloved Christmas traditions. But growing up and starting your own family is all about making new traditions, isn’t it? So I embraced it, and actually we had a wonderful time.

It started early on Christmas Morning. I’d been teasing Dan for a while about being worried Santa wouldn’t know that he needed to leave my presents at the foot of my bed like he used to at home, but lo and behold! When I got out of bed to go and get the dog I found a big sack of gifts there that definitely weren’t present when I went to sleep! It was a very sweet start to the day, and we spent the morning opening our gifts from each other and giving Bonnie hers (yes, I also get my dog gifts, and wrap them, because I pretend like she’s my child – I know it’s weird) Then it was a busy morning preparing Dinner and making sure I had my freshly baked gingerbread ready for the arrival of Dan’s family for dinner! Because we haven’t really started redecoration yet we haven’t really spent much time shopping for home furnishings. We only had a tablecloth because we remembered last minute and had to dash out on a lunch break to get one! So being house proud as I am I was a bit worried it wouldn’t look particularly festive at the table, but I’m pretty pleased with what I managed last minute with limited resources – amazing what you can do with some candles, some pine cones and some spare baubles!

Dinner was delicious largely thanks to Dan (I did make spiced red cabbage and did lots of hosting and plating up so I didn’t just leave him to it!) and in true fashion I completely neglected to get any photos of it bar this one, which doesn’t at all do his fantastic cooking justice:

Then I was pleasantly surprised to find the afternoon not all that different to my own family Christmas Day – lots of lovely gift giving, Prosecco drinking, gorging on ALL THE CHEESE and binge watching of Christmassy television before collapsing into bed in a food coma (ok, there may have been some sofa snoozing before then…)

And remarkably, I’ve managed to get nearly 700 words into an outfit post without actually mentioning my outfit!! Now, Christmas Day dressing appears to be a contentious subject amongst my peers, with plenty of them preferring to stay in their pyjamas all day. I spend a good chunk of the morning in mine – I even have specific Christmas themed ones! But to me a day you can class as a special occasion means a chance to get completely over dressed, so OBVIOUSLY I had a fancy outfit in mind. And yes, as it’s Christmas, sequins and sparkle were heavily involved…. I introduced you to the skirt earlier in the week, one I’ve been hankering after for years, and immediately declared the ‘all new’ Christmas Skirt (I am slightly concerned this may be one of those new traditions I’ve been talking about….) I paired it with yet another pair of the Kurt Geiger ‘Dolly’ shoes that I wore on Christmas Eve and a comfy black jumper with a vintage brooch. I think this might actually be one of my favourite outfits of the year, and I might actually have to make a concerted effort to make Summer sequins fashionable just so I can wear it again soon! Bonnie is of course rocking Christmas Jumper chic, because she’s just crazy like that…!

What about you – are you a fancy Christmas outfit kinda person, or do you prefer to slob it out in your PJs?

Love,

In this post: Sequin Skirt, River Island (Similar) – Black Jumper, Dorothy Perkins, (Similar) – ‘Dolly’ Shoes, KG by Kurt Geiger (Similar) – Brooch, Vintage