Merry, Merry!

May you have time with loved ones this season & find sweet treats under your Christmas tree/ Hannukah bush/ Festivus pole such as these (with our without a certain attention-strumpeting Pug who inserts himself into all photos celebrity-style).

A Christmas Challenge, Vampires Welcome

How's that for a tortured title, huh? You literary, vampire-centric voters have spoken - giving excellent suggestions, I might add - so I will start my vacation reading off with a "Twilight" purchase and proceed on from there. Thanks to you, and the Undead, for the tips.

On a perhaps ever-so-slightly more Christmassy note, the ever-funny and fabulous News Readin Wife posted a moving message here the other day. Despite my constitutional aversion to forwards, be they emailed, blogged, or carrier pigeoned, this one passes my ever-judgmental test, so in the spirit of Christmas it is. The idea: In the spirit o' the holidays, I do (or attempt to do) something nice without expectation of getting anything in return - didn't Kevin Spacey do a movie about this? - but with the expectation that selected readers will, in turn, do something selflessly nice yourselves.

In my own personal version of this "pay it forward" - I know, how strange is this that I'm being all chipper and stuff? - I'd like to pay homage to my late, uber-wonderful Grandmother, who I am sorely missing this first Christmas season after her passing. All snark aside, it has been a difficult few weeks, and my reliance on the sweet relief of the Pity Party has been great lately. In any event, Grandmother was a great believer in charitable giving, so I've adapted the concept like so - I will randomly select two readers on whose behalf I will make one small (ie, no tax benefit to moi) donation, in an amount determined by me, directly to the charity of his or her choice. By "charity", I mean:

- If in the United States, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization registered as a charity with the IRS as such, ie, "American Red Cross", "Junior League of Houston", etc. whose official, hoity-toity government sanctioned status can be verified by me. Unfortunately, I cannot support your "Please Pay My Student Loans" personal charity because I'm working on one of my own by that same title. If you're not in the US, er . . . we'll figure something out.

- Lurkers (and vampires!) are welcome to participate, but I reserve the right to eliminate any spammy or suspicious, Nigerian Pyramid Scheme-looking comments. Actually, this is just a Pretty Blog Rule in general, so, ya know, please take note.

- You must post a comment containing (1) your charity of choice; and (2) a means for me to contact you by, whether it be via your blog or email, so that we can discuss in whose name to make the donation, etc. I will enter you twice if you include (1) the reason why you're nominating that particular charity; and/or (2) gratuitous and wildly unreasonable compliments for yours truly.

- Other stuff I've forgotten, but I'm sure you clever readers will point out. I reserve the right to arbitrarily and unreasonably change these rules in my sole discretion.

- Comments will be left open until this Sunday, December 20th at 10 pm-ish, by which time I hope to have learned how to close comments. I will pick the two winners at random & announce the results shortly thereafter, and ask that they then return the favor by doing something they consider in line with this "pay it forward" concept and write about it.

I'm very curious what sort of turnout we'll get, since this isn't the traditional sort of giveaway . . . in any event, best of luck!

A Grinch's Confession - Holiday Decor

Tonight I must confess something to you . . . I do not maintain this icily cool and elegant exterior year round. Come the day after Thanksgiving, my cold, unfeeling heart cracks just enough to get demonstrably excited about buying gifts, decorating the Pretty HQ, and spiking the eggnog. I outright adore midnight service on Christmas Eve and sending those Christmas cards you all helped me with a while back. Yes, for the month of December, I've known on occasion to be positively . . . cheerful.

However, as I emerged from my turkey coma this year, I struggled to get in the spirit of things, this being my first Christmas season without that late lover of LV herself, my dear grandmother. So this morning I decided to daintily grab this Christmas by the bells and, well, fake it till I make it. Shopping being one of Grandmother's approved hobbies, I set to adorning Pretty HQ with some much needed holiday decor, and slowly the caffeine that old, familiar excitement started to creep in.

So let's take a peek at my Christmas bounty so far - surely the first in a series of boring you with holiday Prettiness - but first, my Rules of Holiday Decorating:

(1) My decorating style is random, er, fun. Colorful. Whatever strikes my festive fancy and seems like it can withstand children and champagne (not together, mind you. Gaah). More Clark Griswold, less Martha Stewart.

(2) As I e-commented to HRH Sippycups today - your chesticles may be fake and your hair color may be fake, but your Christmas tree may not. I will bear no opposition about this - if the tree does not shed and smell fabulous and entice your cat to climb up it at 3 am, I want no part of it.

Without further fuss, I bring you the best of today's Operation Christmas goodies:

(credit: Macy's)

(credit: Macy's)

Macy's! On sale! Exclamation point!!

Please forgive the splendiferous iPhone photography with this next Target find . . .


As ever, our friends at the big T have a delightful holiday setup; worth wading through to find the looks-expensive-but-aren't pieces like these.

(Credit: Barnes & Noble. Heaven.)

Because if I can't have Harry Connick Jr. gift wrapped under my mistletoe um, I mean, crooning to me in my living room, I may as well have this excellent Christmas CD on my iPod. Speaking of HCJ in the flesh - love you, Anonymous Husband! - he is on tour, and all swoon-age aside, is one of the best live acts I've ever seen. Incredibly talented, funny, and even more, er, charming live . . . what was I talking about again?

What am I missing on the Christmas cheer list, pets?