Lies and Christmastime

So I probably got way too excited when I found out that both The Lying Game and Pretty Little Liars are coming back on January 2^nd. 

So.  Much.  Lying. 

My life has been a little empty without my teen soaps (okay not really, but still, I’m looking forward to having them on my DVR for some mindless entertainment in 2012). Plus, the prospect of them revealing who A is on PLL is more than I can fathom right now.  What WILL they come up with next?!?!  Yet another silver lining?  Now January, which is usually a downer of a month, with its cold and grey days is suddenly looking up.  (Though if this bizarro weather trend keeps going, it might be 50 and sunny next month, which is kind of messing me up but I’ll take it over frigid wind and snow any day!)  And PS – One Tree Hill is coming back too.  I mean, apparently good things also happen in threes.

But before I can revel in the amazingness of these shows, there’s a holiday season to get through.  I know, it’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year and all that jazz and not something to get through.  But honestly, it’s become an incredibly stressful time of year.  Thanksgiving to New Year’s is just a marathon of insanity on the work and home front and it’s not so much that I dread it, but I kind of wish it was more fun. 

Now, maybe I was just too young to know better, but I have such fond memories of Christmas as a kid.  And even for most of adulthood.  It goes without saying that I like to receive gifts (um, who doesn’t?) and not like I need an excuse to shop, but I always loved buying presents and wrapping them up.  Love looking at decorations.  The smell of Christmas trees.  And at the first snowfall getting my first Starbucks Peppermint Mocha of the season.  I love the idea of tradition.  Of having all sorts of mismatched ornaments and sentimental favorites on the tree in favor of a perfectly coiffed matchy-matchy one.  And to only listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving and not a minute before.  So many songs to pick from but this one is definitely one of my favorites:

But somewhere along the way…I don’t know…it just seems like something is missing.  I don’t mean to get all Charlie Brown and complain about the commercialness of Christmas, but it always seemed like a magical time of year.  Now, the stores are packed with pusher shoppers, half of the Rockefeller Tree Lighting ceremony is pre-taped, and hardly anyone sends card anymore. Perhaps it’s my old age talking, but I miss Christmas past.  Maybe I should get myself a Charlie Brown tree, do the Peanuts dance and the Christmas spirit (or the angel of the Lord as it were) will inspire me.

Letting go of some literal baggage

The good news….I did get a little taste of Christmas this weekend. My mom bought me some candy canes.  We did some shopping (avoiding the crowds very well, I must say).  My holiday cards are in progress.  I even baked.  I know….WTF, right? What can I say?  I was trying to get in the mood.   And I suspect knowing that there’s a long vacation at the end of month always helps. 

I’m also getting a little of a jump-start on another year end tradition, which is pretty much trying to get my life in order.  Pretty sure I may have mentioned that I can be a bit of a total control freak in some areas of my life.  At least I own it.  But I’ve been on a mission to re-do my closet for a while (hello, Elfa closet amazingness!) but haven’t been able to pull the trigger.  I’m a pack rat.  I’m emotionally tied to some of my clothes (memmmmmories….) and even though I don’t seem to have a problem with impulse purchases I do have a problem with impulse purging.  Enter mom and her candy canes.  Several hours, an honest look at things later and three bags of crap later and voila!  It actually wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be, with one exception. 

Kate.

There’s that stereotype how all women are obsessed with shoes and buy them like candy.  Closets packed to the gills with shoes of all kinds, because as the adage goes, “shoes always fit”.  Now, I can appreciate a fabulous shoe as much as the next girl, but truth be told, they aren’t my go-to purchase.  For me, it’s all about the purse.  Always has been and always will be. It’s my weakness.  Even when I was younger…there was my purple Tano purse and my tan Le Sportsac and the most miniscule leather “purse” from Banana that maybe was the size of an iPhone to the paratrooper briefcase that I used in high school and I still have in my closet.  Still actually looks pretty good.  Loooove this bag. 

That said, there are times when a purse needs to meet its end. Or as my mom said, it was time to let it make someone else happy.  God!  Aren’t moms just the best?!  Alas, she was a bit shocked when she saw my whole “collection” if you will.  But luckily I am my mother’s daughter, a purse lady herself, so there wasn’t an ounce of judgment.  And she helped me let go a little.  So farewell Lisboa clutch that had nothing but crap memories tied to it.  So long off-white purse that gets dirty when the wind blows (damn, final online sale mistake).  See ya black doctor-esque bag that’s way too small for me now, even though I still kind of like it. 

But the hard part was breaking up with Kate.  I’ve been a kate spade new york girl since 1997 when I got my black nylon Sam.  It was the reason I opened a Neiman Marcus card, since my MasterCard just wasn’t fancy enough for NM.  Live beyond my means much?  From there, it was just flat out obsession and my closet has a lot of Kate in it, from bags to clothes to shoes to jewelry.  So when it came time to take a hard look at the state of my purses and my mom suggested parting ways with one, well, it wasn’t pretty. 

I give you my green Noel Dot purse:

Now this picture really doesn’t do it justice. It does have stains on it which I can only guess is from spilled drinks in bars, exposure to the rain, and proof that bad things happen to good purses when they are exposed to the elements in Boston.  But I love this bag.  Love the color. Love that I never saw anyone else with it.  And even though I probably haven’t carried it in years, it’s a sentimental favorite.  And even though this picture really kind of makes me want to keep it (that's the probably with your giveaways being stored under the dining room table...there's the risk of snatching stuff back out of the bag)....it really is a bit banged up and not really the impression that I want to give off, so I’m giving it away.  It hurts me more than it hurts her, I’m sure.  Hopefully she’ll be adopted into a new home by a girl who will treat her right.  Goodbye, love.  Thanks for the memories. 

(And doesn’t out with the old mean in with the new?  Too soon?  Sorry, Kate.)

Next step is to attack all the “stuff”…the books…the paper…the pack-ratty piles that I never want to deal with so I just seem to move them around.  But I’m committed to the final home improvements (good-bye wall o’ mirrors) and since that requires moving my giant storage unit, I figure I may as well try to clean it up a bit.  I’ve already said it a hundred times but when I’m in the mood I actually like the cleaning process.  Color me crazy.

And the writing you ask?  A little stalled.  I blame the company holiday party on Monday night and being too tired yesterday to manage more than 400 words before I needed to crawl into bed.  I did break 60,000 words with a goal of 75,000 before the year is out.  Then, teen drama aside, I should be able to commit my butt to the chair and my fingers to the keyboard in 2012.  And hopefully not be tempted to check out all those after-Christmas sales.  Three bags of giveaways and my closet isn’t exactly swimming in space.  Maybe my first New Year’s resolution should be to figure out how to exercise some self control.  But then again, why set myself up for failure, right?!?!

For now, I’ll leave you with some holiday inspiration.  Sorry the video is so crappy.  Kind of had higher hopes, you get the gist.  

Happy dancing!