Colorful Coastal Christmas

Merry Christmas, my friends and readers!

This year, we decided to take a mini-break and escape to the beautiful Oregon Coast. On the plus side, at least for us geeks and nerds, it is practically deserted this time of year. If you're a party person, the Oregon Coast is definitely not the place to be right now. On the not-so-plus side, winter on the coast means high winds, heavy rain and the possibility of floods. I'm not used to such strong winds, they almost knocked me off my feet, though locals take their dogs for a walk on the beach just as if it was just another sunny day. We also took walks trying to catch breaks in the weather. In general, I wanted to stay warm and cozy, but still look and feel festive and just a bit glamorous. 

This was by far my most successful outfit for this type of weather - the sweater in addition to a new colorful wool coat protected me from cold, and jeans kept me dry. I only packed two pairs of jeans and one skirt (which was not needed), a couple of sweaters and a plaid shirt with some jewelry pieces. Well, hats and scarves and gloves as well, and two pairs of comfy shoes - one for walks in town, and another one for walks on the beach. The coat does not have a hoodie, so I also grabbed a brolly. A yellow one - to add sunshine! 

It was a great vacation. For the most part, everyone stayed in a happy mood which is the ultimate goal of holidays, isn't it? Being happy, being surrounded by people who help you stay happy, put all your worries aside and just really really be happy - isn't it the deep ultimate meaning of holidays, any holidays? Why this simple wisdom sometimes escapes us, beats me... My idea was to not prepare any gifts for each other in advance, but rather browse and enjoy whatever finds we liked in Cannon Beach and Seaside shops. It worked rather well. Our finds were books, notebooks, art supplies... and everyone ended up delighted.

We stayed at a Seaside hotel, called Rivertide Suites. The hotel had a swimming pool which Anya and I happily took advantage of, and also free wine and beer every night from 5 to 6. Surprisingly, the red wine (Twisted Old Vine Zinfandel) was pretty good, as was the locally brewed beer. Such a pity I found out about it only on our last night. Breakfasts were also included, so we did not need to worry about them. Our room had a full kitchen, so if we had a desire or need, we could even cook home-made meals. I did not want to cook, so we ate out (we particularly liked a restaurant called Driftwood in Cannon Beach). We managed to catch the last run of a play at a local community theater - Coaster Theatre Playhouse. You know how much I love little local theater, and this one was a good discovery. The energy of the lead actress was just phenomenal, we had good laughs.

It is Christmas Eve here now, and we're taking it easy, having a long day driving through the heavy rain yesterday (Justin is our captain and hero). Justin's out food shopping as we came back to an empty fridge last night. I'm going to run a vacuum-cleaner around our Christmas tree. We'll most probably go out for Chinese for dinner, unless people will settle for my borscht. Then Anya wants to spend the rest of the evening wrapping our gifts/finds for each other, so we have something to unwrap and act surprised, as Justin put it, tomorrow morning - both Justin and Anya enjoy this part of Christmas (wrapping, unwrapping and acting surprised, that is). I'll be uploading family videos for my folks to enjoy in far-away Russia, and catching up with you, my lovely blogging friends.

Lots of love to you all!

Coat - Boden 

(my first purchase from this brand - I'm very happy with it, 

the coat comes in 3 colors and now is on sale on their web, sizes 2 to 18 US)

Jeans (old), sweater, hat and scarf - Lane Bryant

Boots (old) - Born

Linking up with 

Top of the World Style

Tina's Pink Friday

Visible Monday

52 Pick-me-up: Chartreuse 

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