In-Between Holiday Stuff

Christmas was great at our house. Conman got everything he put on his list to Santa Claus (and then some), I got a replacement wedding ring for the one I lost, and DH got a new video game for the computer, and that was just here at our house. At mom and dad's it was clothing central, and we all got stuff we can use.

For a little more about what I got in particular at mom and dad's...

My mother apparently believes that I'm a sixty-year-old living in a thirty-two-year-0ld body. Never mind the fact that I am forever struggling to stay "hip" and "with it" (are those the correct terms? I'm not sure any more...) so that I won't be a complete embarrassment to my son when he gets older. Mom insists on prematurely aging me. Let's give a rundown of the clothes she bought me for Christmas this year:

1. Sweater with appliqué. I don't remember exactly what color it was, or exactly what the appliqué was either, but suffice it to say that if I were doing my own shopping, I wouldn't be wandering to the rack that holds this beauty.
2. Sweater with "Aspen" or "Nordic" motif. I know that mom did not actually go to either of the places that are appropriate to buy a sweater like this (namely Aspen or any part of the world that would legitimately carry the word "Nordic" it its description) so she bought it off the rack in a department store. It's red with some sort of skiing or snow-play black and white motif around the collar. Yet another rack I would most likely avoid like the plague.
3. Thin sweater with built-in tank top dickie and black, fake, seed pearls. My schedule doesn't include a visit to the Whispering Pines Retirement Home Christmas Formal Hoe-Down, so I doubt I have anywhere to wear this gem. Waaaaay too overdone to wear casually with jeans, and of a black tone that goes with none of my black slack or skirts that I would wear on a slightly dressier occasion. Mom's solution? "That would look fantastic with a pair of khaki slacks!" Okay. I'll get right on that.
4. Plain purple sweater exactly like the one she bought last year. Okay, in all likelihood, this is the one I'm most apt to wear. It's plain. It's got cable-knitting. It's purple. Sounds great, right? Well...let's back up for just a second. I'm a natural blond, and I have the pasty-white skin to prove it. Pastels are, by and large, NOT by best colors. "Washed out" is an understatement; in this case, it's more like "bleached bone white".

That's not to say that I'm not appreciative. I mean, at least she tried, right? You'd think in thirty-two years of knowing me that she would at least have some inkling of the styles and colors that appeal to me. I don't think she's ever paid that much attention, though, and it's even worse since Conman came along. Oh well, 'least I'll be warm this winter, even if I look like something out of American Graffiti gone terribly awry.

Thank goodness for the gift I bought myself - a FlyFusion pentop computer. I asked for this, she had NO idea what I was talking about, so I bought it for myself and she paid me back. Perhaps in another post I'll relate to you the story of the pen, and how it is filled to the brim with win.