Holiday Festivities & What To Wear?

It is fortunate my husband is taking the lead on what to cook
for tomorrow's dinner, so I have had (too much?) time to think about what I will wear!

We are hosting the "Mains" portion of a
Neighborhood Progressive Dinner.
With a count of nearly 50 adults...
yikes is all I can say.

(Warning: In this post I will promote a lot of stuff...
including my neighborhood!)

Last year the Neighborhood Holiday Party had a theme of Tacky Wear...and some people went all out.


I completely disliked what I was wearing all night long, throwing it on at the last moment without a lot of thought. Was I trying to be tacky or pretty? It wasn't quite clear. (A pink vintage knit suit with beading I'd picked up in San Francisco.) This year I and the other hosts decided to go all out and have the attire be cocktail.

FYI, I Googled Cocktail attire and found this definition:

"Cocktail attire technically means a suit for men, and a cocktail dress for women, which usually means a short dress (preferably not career wear). I prefer a little black dress -- and depending how formal you think the event is, you can glam it up with accessories. Of course you have lots of leniency in what you wear -- a dressy pantsuit, a lovely skirt and top, etc. Everyone interprets the meaning of dress requests differently."
Cynthia Nellis

As a side note, there are a total of three Neighborhood Progressive Dinners tomorrow night, now this is a community you can't help but have a great time in! (Villebois, Plug 1) No snow is forecasted, so everyone should be able to walk from house to house in their lovely heels.

(Neighborhood scene from last year.)

Yesterday I decided to try on the outfit I had planned to wear and pick out what Stella & Dot (Plug 2) jewelry I was going to wear with it.


Putting on this JCrew Ruffle Tissue Tank, paired with basic black slacks, I was not happy. Certainly cute, but add a little sweater and I could go to Target (Plug 3) in this outfit. Shoot, now what?

So after school I bribed the kids to run to the mall with me. "Do you want to get a Jamba Juice?" (Plug 4)

JCrew (Plug 5) was the real destination. I quickly walked through the store grabbing whatever appealed to me, ran into the dressing room and tried on everything as fast as I could, all to a running commentary by Isabella & Max. Isabella tried on a few of the items herself, Max refrained.

Luckily a little black dress, that seemed just right, was on sale for 40% off. I am a sale kind of girl, if you don't already know that. Checked out, walked down the mall and had fun looking at all the great products at the Lego Store (Plug 6) and finally ordered up some Jamba yummies before hitting the road towards home. All this before dinner.



After I got the kids to bed, I dressed the mannequin and added the Stella & Dot Kelly Pearl Necklace and will also wear the Bloom Flower Ring. (Repeat Plug 2)


I am now looking forward to the party, happy with what I will be wearing. In the grand scheme of life, what to wear is not all that important, but when you feel good about what you have on you can forget about it and move on to enjoy the rest of it all!