Tag! You're it!

Here's a tag for all of you. What did Santa bring you? Put it on your blog and leave a comment here, so I can check it out!

I'll start. On Christmas morning, I received:

--A red Le Creuset tagine (which I've wanted forever)
--Espresso spoons (12)
--Electric handmixer
--Wind-up alarm clock
--Kitchen timer

Now, for your edification...

...more pics from my holiday home.

Even more Fitz and Floyd (with my beautiful little bronzes by Onelio Marrero)


My nativity set (made by my paternal grandmother)


My foyer (featuring the only houseplant that ever survived my tender care, Jolene the peace lily)


My kitchen table (more holly!)

Here I am...

...looking rather silly (and sans make-up) in my little elf hat that lights up.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...at Min's house. A few pics from of my decorations:



My Christmas Time tree (yes, I forgot the tree skirt):


Close-ups views:






More pics from my house. First, the den mantelpiece (I cut the holly, myself!):




Some of my Fitz and Floyd (and my keys):


Some more of my Fitz and Floyd:


The dining room table (yes, there are nudes throughout my house):




The glass Christmas tree forest in the living room:


And these are the decorations I did for the office foyer:








And the office Christmas tree (I don't know why the pics are so dark):




I blame Mike for all the Fitz and Floyd. He collects the Santas and Nutcrackers, and I just fell in love with them, so I started collecting some of the teapots and cookie jars.

Ho, ho, ho!

It is a very cold day today.

I'm wearing my faux Russian fur hat, the new black velveteen car coat that I bought on sale from Fabulous Furs for forty bucks, pinkish-plum leather gloves, and a fluffy seafoam/black/pink/purple scarf that an on-line friend knitted for me.

I'm in the middle of decorating my house for Thanksgiving, and it looks like a stuffed turkey preserve blew up in my den. Ah, the holidays.

I'm hosting a pokeno party tomorrow night, and I want the house to look festive. I'm serving soup and crusty bread, since it shows every intention of being cold this weekend, too. I'm making tomato florentine soup for the ones who don't like spicy food, and sausage and lentil soup for the ones who like a little bite with their broth.

I am a vision in red.

More or less. I'm going to Memphis to speechify this afternoon, and the black ladies in Memphis love me in red or purple (I wore purple yesterday), so I'm wearing red just for them. Red/pink tweed suit, red three-inch ankle-straps, fused red glass pendant (made for me by a friend), pinkish-red pillbox wrapped in dark red georgette, red wool swing coat, red leather tote bag, red leather gloves with pleated cuffs.

Something about my style must appeal to black women of my generation or a little older, because 9 times out of 10, if a stranger compliments my clothes on the street, it will be a black woman around my same age. I was shopping in Kroger last Thursday for the reception I catered at church Friday night, and I had on a high-waisted black/white polka dot dress with a decollete` wrapped bodice and a gathered skirt, a shiny black handbag hanging in the crook of my elbow (I dislike shoulderbags, as a rule), and a pair of high heeled black peep-toe pumps with big white buttons on the toe. A black woman came down the aisle toward me, and, as she passed, she practically gushed, "You look so beautiful!"

Now, it's a cute dress, it has the added advantage of making me look like I have really nice breasts, and the shoes matched perfectly, but I wasn't even wearing a hat! @):-)

Free Books!

Simon and Schuster UK is giving away free books on LJ! So, if you have a LiveJournal account, get over there and claim one:

http://simon-saysuk.livejournal.com/5247.html?view=32383#t32383