Fashion Sense

The Season

This holiday season really snuck up on me this year, and it seems like everyone I know is feeling the same way. Like one week was magically removed from the calendar and we're all scrambling to catch up and get everything done in time.

And yet, I've managed to maintain my goal of recent years of keeping things simple and inexpensive (relatively). I've found that I am more mentally at peace going into holiday celebrations (and all the commercialism and "stuff" that inevitably comes along with them), if I have done my part to stay local and handmade in my gift giving.
And although I didn't seem to have the time to handmake many of my own gifts this year (as I have in years past), I ordered most gifts online from local merchants and stuck to handmade items for the most part. That kept me out of the traffic and the malls, which always seem to make me cranky about the whole gift-giving endeavor....

I revised my plans for our holiday card when we all fell ill the day we were supposed to have our pictures taken and ordered a card with a picture of Sadie from this fall.

Brian and I collaborated on putting together our annual holiday CD (a tradition of mine for nearly a decade now) and somehow managed to get it done in time. Long gone are the days of drinking Bloody Marys all morning and making the CD together while listening to our entire music collection. This year it was more about emails back and forth and each of us working on it a little bit while the other was out and about or at work. But it got done, and we're loving it. Hope our friends and family will too.

This morning I sent off the last of our holiday packages, and by getting to the post office before they opened, avoided the hours-long line that many experience this time of year.

I've already experienced some holiday events that have put me in the mood for celebrating, namely our annual bookclub holiday party (with husbands), and our annual high tea at the Brown Palace. And what a treat it was for Sadie to join us for the first time. The magic of this event was heightened even more by her participation and wonder.
And now that nearly everything is crossed off my to-do lists, I'm ready to celebrate. I'm so happy that I've made it through all these holiday tasks with minimal stress. Now I can enter into the remainder of the season with a clear mind and heart and open myself up to what these celebrations are really about. I am so excited to settle in with my loved ones with a warm drink to savor the season. Delicious food (the cooking and the eating), music, fireplaces, twinkling lights, and friends and family. Bring it on...I'm ready, and I can't wait.

Florida trip

Too busy, or tired, or distracted to write eloquently about my recent trip to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I have some great pictures to share.

Sadie and I traveled alone to Florida to add a few days to the trip. It was fun traveling together, just the two of us. And Sadie did REALLY well on the airplane.



We spent a few amazingly relaxing and calm days at the beach with my parents, consisting of delicious meals out, unstructured playtime on the beach with a few Florida family members, TV and reading with Mom at night, and a dolphin watching expedition!

Our first Peckett family Thanksgiving Day 10K run and 5K walk were a great success! And Brian won the race!

Thanksgiving was lovely as usual. What a nice treat to be able to eat the big meal outdoors, at a table all together, in the gorgeous 75 degree weather.

Visit to the new, fabulous Children's Museum in Tampa.







Boat trip on the Gulf of Mexico with the entire family. Best day ever.


Cousins in the bath. Just like their mamas used to do...

Sadie's enthralled with the horses....

What a great trip....the fact that it was so perfect continues to make coming back to work that much harder....

Lonesome Traveler

Our last house concert of the season was with a great, local bluegrass band, Lonesome Traveler. Every season, we like to host at least one full band to our house concert series, and although we've had a lot of musicians from all over the country play, we strive to also support local musicians whenever we can.
We had a great crowd for the night, and were so thrilled to meet all the band members. Good people, good food, and great music. Exactly why we love this house concert thing....
Thank you Lonesome Traveler for sharing your music and your friendship!

We're taking a house concert break for the holidays, but we'll be back at it in March and are already really excited for the spring lineup:

Saturday, March 10: The Atomic Duo
Saturday, April 14: Dr. Harlan's Amazing Bluegrass Tonic
May house concert: TBA