Solstice Cocktails & Stocking Stuffers

On Thursday night Art & Adie had a swanky holiday cocktail party. They set up a velvet quilted bar and drew up a menu of delicious drink options.

Here are Adie & Lindsay rocking the bar.

And Heather and little brother Mikie! I always love meeting people's siblings, especially with bigger families, so I was happy to finally meet Mikie. I've known Adie, Heather, and Joey for a few years now- only one more sibling (and his lovely wife and their beautiful children) yet to meet! I love seeing all the family antics on Heather's blog. Almost makes me want to have 5 kids!

Emily & Joey.

Heather took all of these shots. When she handed my camera back to me she said "Sorry, it's pretty much all Placerville people." Fine by me! If there's one thing I've learned from Heather, it's that the fine folk of the foothills to the south know how to party.

I'm glad that Heather thought to snap some photos of me too. I was all fancy in high heels, lace tights, and a little hair bow!

And Jessica was cute as ever with a little bow tie necklace.

But Rachel's dress won for Outstanding Christmas Attire. In my book, anyway. This gorgeous gown inspired a conversation between us about how prolific Gunne Sax's output was and how there are always new styles and materials to behold. They must have just been chugging away back then, putting out as many designs as they could as often as possible.

I mean, look at this! And yes, it's a Black Label. You can see more of it in Rachel's Etsy shop Silkworm Vintage. I swear Placerville must have more Gunnies per capita than anywhere else in California! The dress I posted about day before yesterday came from there too.

Now onto yesterday morning, when we had Christmas morning in our little household. Under the tree were gifts for the girls (all of them to be shared) from Sarah & I, and in their stocking were individual gifts for each girl from Santa. Including these fun mustaches.

Mycie and Ella were running at top level excitement all morning. And yes Missa, the cool umbrella mobile you slipped into my gift bag was re-gifted to Mycie, from Santa! As she said, that was so nice of him.

Their favorite gift was a horse dress up paper doll extravaganza, The Marvelous Book of Magical Horses. I highly recommend it for girls their age or older.

Since my girl is pretty into magic tricks, I got her this simple one from a shop a few doors down from us. We practiced in our room a number of times before she had the confidence to try it out on Ella.

In the aftermath of the gift opening, when the girls were off in their Pegasus fantasy land, I decided to use the few moments of relative peace to try out my new tripod. It took a few times, but I finally got it figured out. Except for the visible cord.

This was my cozy lounge about outfit for the morning. The lavender sweater I got out of a pile of free clothes at the entrance to Mycie's school a few weeks ago. The tights are a cashmere blend I got from Nordstrom.com in the fall and have worn every single day since. They already have two small holes and I'll need to replace them before the warm weather returns. But what I really want to show you is the pink tank dress beneath it. I traded it with my friend Beverly at the Bizarre, and I'm so glad I did! I have also worn it under whatever I am wearing every day since. It adds an extra layer of warmth and internal cuteness ;-)

Merry Christmas Eve!