"You're not doing Christmas?"

That's what our friend J said to me yesterday when I drove into League City to his antique shop: What do you mean you're not doing Christmas? You're breaking tradition!

Indeed we are...... we've had that Open House Christmas party every year since 1997. No matter how I explained it to J, he was just so disappointed. Like a little kid, I swear that man is. He told me I could just whip up a party in no time flat. Well, I probably could, but it wouldn't be anything like the mega-parties that we have here. And who wants a half-baked party? If I can't do it right, then I'd rather not do it at all. And in order to do it right, the preparations for that kind of a party needed to be started before October. I reminded J that I had the flu for six weeks back then, but he kept telling me that I didn't have the flu now. (Men.....)

Plus, my husband and I have been invited to two parties.... and the weekends are winding down and before you know it, Christmas will be here. I told J that we would invite him over for dinner, along with L, the lady who works with him..... they both come to all of our Charades party. In fact, when I told L that we wouldn't be having the Christmas party, she said Good for you! Take a break and just enjoy the holiday! And then she said: But you're still going to do the Valentine's party, right? (Well, of course we are..... that's like the Halloween party--- we just have to do it!..... We can't be breaking too many traditions.)

In fact, while I was in J's shop yesterday, I found something for the Valentine's party..... a tall champagne goblet, clear glass, with a red glass heart design at the very bottom of the stem. Just the one, so I bought it---- I will fill it with red M&Ms and wrap it up in cellophane, and that can be one of the guessing games at the Valentine's party.

I also found some vintage dark green sherbet glasses at the shop..... I already had four of them, and I found six more that are nearly identical to mine. I will use them at Christmas, and again for our St. Patty's Day lunch. Right now, I've got them up on the shelves of our coffee-bar and those glass shelves look very Christmas-y, between the red goblets that I had, and now all those pretty green sherbets.

In L's space at J's shop, I found a tiny little Christmas tree, just about 16" high...... then I found this pretty little turquoise and gold teacup that the base of the tree fit into perfectly. (Just the teacup... no saucer, but I didn't need it for the tree.) So there I was last night at ten o'clock, gluing beads and vintage buttons to that little tree. For the tree-top, I used a costume-jewelry cameo pin. Such a pretty little tree..... it's sitting on the sofa table in the living room, and I put some gold angels around it. Mickey Kitty went to investigate all of that, of course, but he wasn't too much interested, which is fine with me.

I've been paging through Carolyne Roehm's decorating and entertaining books...... lots of great ideas in there for pretty ways to dress up dining room tables. Our dining room table this year will be a mix of silver and red..... with the Santa ornaments at each place setting, and green-trimmed china, and I think I'll buy a cherry or strawberry gelato to serve in the green sherbet glasses. What I need to do is start making a list..... and we still haven't decided on what to serve for dinner yet, so we've got to get going on that because our friends are going to be calling to ask what we'd like them to bring.

While I was in League City yesterday, I went into Nana's Attic and found more Christmas gifts for my sister, and even a couple of birthday gifts for her. So I bought those and put them into the closet for her. They have such great things in that little shop... things you don't see at the other local stores.... the two sisters who own the shop have been in business for over 18 years now. It was one of the first shops that I discovered when we moved down here in 1993 and I've been going there ever since.

The weather has warmed up some...... so much so that the cats slept out on the screen-porch last night. (So nice to not get up at three or four o'clock in the morning....) There was a twenty-five degree difference in the temperature between yesterday and the day before. All that cold weather came from the Chicago area... and I hope they keep it up there where it belongs. I don't know how they manage up there........ the Illinois winters seem even worse than those I remember from New York.

Today's temperature is around 65 degrees..... and I'm sitting here with jeans, a camisole underneath my sweater, and I've got a poncho on top of the sweater. Unless the temperature is 80 or above, I'm just plain cold.