After all that work, a day to sleep late. A day to enjoy yummy leftovers. A day to return/exchange presents. A day to take down the tree. Yes to all! We have already taken down our Christmas tree and it is laying outdoors at curbside.  Not many returns, but we efficiently took care of those early in the day.  It is also a day to reflect: How was the meal? Did everyone have fun? How did the ‘Secret Santa’ go? Glad to share, but first must start with what I wore…;-)

My attire choices for Christmas are without a doubt Ginger influenced. Remembering back to this holiday growing up, everyone in the family dressed up at home…velvet pants, satin blouses, red cashmere sweater with wool dress pants for my dad – never jeans and sneakers. Though Ginger would not wear high heels when entertaining (nor could I), her outfit was elegant and festive head to toe. These Ralph Lauren wool pants actually belonged to her!  (Had them tailored to fit me perfectly)  The sweater is a lightweight wool blend by ALC, the gold sparkly kitten heels by Paul Mayer – comfort and elegance all in one.

Now on to the meal…all went without a hitch thanks to Whole Foods! A simple menu of tenderloin roast with sides to simply heat up made it quite easy – and though I have complained in the past about the effort of setting a table with china, the Ginger in me decided to go for it and glad that I did.  It seems there was a cleaning angel or two in my home because things got washed and put away without me even noticing!  Whoever you are, thank you!!!

It seems that everyone had fun – Peter and I set the table with place cards with the names of various Christmas characters – some movie related, some religious, etc…everyone picked their seat then the card was associated with a question that person had to answer.  One funny moment:  my question was “What is the best thing that has happened to you since last Christmas?”  Before I had a chance to open my mouth, daughter Hayley lifted baby Emily high into the air!  Haha…

Finally, doing ‘Secret Santa’ was a success – even my dad enjoyed it and will be glad to do it again next year. Nobody missed getting a pile of presents that they really don’t need, and the spirit of giving was not at all lost. Everyone made a special effort with their gift choices, and it was almost like playing a game finding out who had who.

So great to have the day after Christmas as a holiday – it should be this way every year!  Today I am wearing jeans (yay, they fit!), tonight we are having pizza – and pecan pie. 😉

What did you do today?