baby it's cold outside

Last night the Christmas bug hit me hard, y'all.  I wrapped presents, added a few more decorations to our tree, and baked and frosted Christmas cookies!  I feel like Christmas is such a family ordeal.  There's something about the unbridled joy of a child at Christmas time that really just makes everything sparkle and shine.  As an adult, I almost don't feel like Christmas will have that same magic until I have kids and get to create the magic for them.  Even as a kid I liked to create a bit more magic for my little brothers (or attempt to, at least).  I used to put cookies and a glass of milk by the fireplace on Christmas eve, and then I would sneak up and take a bite of the cookies and drink some milk so in the morning I could be like, "look!  Santa was here!"  Haha.  I'm sure they weren't fooled, but I still got a lot of joy out of trying to bring a bit more magic to Christmas for them.

top/vintage :: dress + tights + shoes/courtesy of modcloth :: coat/thrifted lady tie/courtesy of flapper girl :: bag/courtesy of handbag heaven :: photos by Dan
I only just styled this dress a week ago, but I already knew how I wanted to style it a second time.  The under shirt makes it a bit more winter friendly, since going sleeveless this time of year isn't too fun.  I'm discovering that I dress for warmth way more down here in Tacoma than I ever did up in Anchorage.  It's mostly because, while the temperatures down here are significantly warmer than in Anchorage during the winter, I spend a lot more time outdoors here in Tacoma.  In Anchorage, I didn't live in an area where walking to stores or coffee shops was really an option, so we would just drive everywhere, which meant getting into a warm car in a warm garage, driving to our destination, and then only briefly running from the warm car to whatever warm building we were headed to.  Not much time out in the cold.  But here, we live close enough to coffee shops and a few stores that we regularly walk as our main mode of transportation, especially now that we don't have bikes.  It might only get down to the high 30's, while in Anchorage it's hovering around 0, but walking in the 30's is cuh-hold!  
In these pictures I'm actually wearing two pairs of tights: one thicker, nude-ish color, and then the mustard ones on top.  It doesn't add bulk, but it really adds a lot of warmth.  If you're wearing darker colored tights, like rust or wine colored ones, you can even pull them on over leggings for added warmth.  I often will put on socks and then tights (mostly because this helps my tiny feet fit into all my shoes that are a bit too big), which helps a lot with keeping feet warm on long walks.  Most of my shoes are already about a size too big for me, but if you don't have baby feet like me, I'd recommend getting the shoes/boots you like wearing in winter in a size bigger than what you normally wear so you can fit some thicker socks in there.