The weather has been crazy here lately! Ferocious thunderstorms, followed by days of sunny weather. Sometimes it’s in the 70’s, but at other times, it dips nearly into the 20s! And then, just the other day, our ears perked up when we heard the Weatherman say that magical word: “Snow”!
Well, you can imagine how exciting that was! We haven’t had a lot of snow here lately, so the idea that there might be even the tiniest bit of snow in our forecast put such ideas into our little Whimsie heads, that even though it was nighttime, and we were already snug in our jammies, almost ready for bed, we all started brainstorming how we would dress to go outside in the morning to play in the snow!
We dug into the very back of our Wardrobe, had gotten as far as choosing our hats when Miss Chrissy walked in and threw ice cold water all over our enthusiasm. (Sigh…)She let us know that what the Weatherman was actually saying was that there might only be a few flakes, and they would be about 4 o’clock in the morning (when most reasonable people and Whimsies are snug in their beds) and that because it had only recently be nearly 75 degrees, the ground was much too warm for any of those snowflakes to stick.
Bummer.
But as bummed out as we were by this news, we had already tried on our hats, and thought we looked quite fetching in them, so we quickly transformed the ice cold water Miss Chrissy threw on our enthusiasm into…lemonade! 
(I know I’m mixing metaphors, but you get the idea…)
Since we were already in our hats, we decided this would be as good a time as any for a Winter Hat Fashion Show! So here we go, showing off the lovely assortment of Winter Hats we donned…for the snow that never came….
I’ll go first! As you know, pink is my very favorite color, as you can see by the pink kitty kat pajamas I was already wearing when all this Snow business got started. So I reached deep into the Wardrobe, seeking out Pink Pink Pink, my favorite color Pink…and ta-dum! Look what I found! Not only is this hat my beloved Pink on the inside, but it is also a shiny, sparkly black and silver on the outside. And very warm! And as you can see, so excellent at covering not only my ears, but also my braids. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the proper kind of hat to cover my braids, which do tend to stick out a bit, but that was no problem for this hat! So, this hat fulfilled all the requirements by being not only warm, but also attractive, as well as quite functional. I can’t imagine a better choice for someone like me, can you?
Of course…maybe if you are Tootsie, and you are also dressed in pink pajamas, you might also be seeking out a pink hat. But no, not Tootsie! She had other requirements for her Winter Hat! For, as you’ll notice, Tootsie’s pink pajamas are covered with her favorite fellow…Santa Claus!
Santa was exceptionally good to all of us here in Whimsieville this pass Christmas, and even though Christmas is now at least six weeks ago, Tootsie can’t seem to stop thinking about Santa Claus! (Personally, I think she has a crush on him… I’ve suggested she could write something about Santa in the “My Favorite Boyfriend” section of our blog, but Tootsie is still just too shy to even imagine doing something like that. So for the time being, you’ll just have to trust me. Santa Claus is Tootsie’s Favorite Boyfriend.)
And that being said, Tootsie naturally went looking for a RED hat. She was hoping to find one that very closely resembled Santa’s pointed cap, with the little white pom pom on the end, and she almost found one that would have been practically perfect, when instead she found this hat.
Tillie was right there beside her, and mentioned that if we were going to be going out in the Snow, it would be very important to have her ears covered, and so this hat, with its long red earflaps, instantly became quite appealing to Tootsie. We all noted that in addition to those very functional earflaps, this hat also does in fact have that little white pom pom on top. Well, that sold her! Tootsie put on this red and white knitted hat and hasn’t take it off since!
Tessie, on the other hand, went in a very different direction that either Tootsie or myself. As you can see, she is wearing yellow pajamas. We Whimsies used to have a strong belief that nobody looks good in yellow…but then one day Miss Chrissy came back from the Thrift Store Boutique with several items in yellow, and though at first with trepidation, we eventually tried them on, and…guess what?? 
Our old-fashioned ideas about yellow were quickly obliterated! In other words, we now have NO PROBLEM wearing yellow! So on this evening, Tessie was the one wearing the yellow jammies with the adorable pink ladybug.
Now. What can you pair with yellow jammies featuring an adorable pink ladybug? Tessie could have gone for something pink, to match the ladybug, but since she was already so far out in left field by wearing those yellow jammies, she decided to get even wilder with her choice of Winter Hat! And why wouldn’t she, when she found this fleecy purple sort of hood, that also features some long tassels ending in purple braids. Her ears are as well covered as mine and Tootsie’s! And don’t you just think that lovely shade of purple somehow makes her porcelain complexion look even brighter and sweeter than it usually does? Yes! Being warm and protected when you go out in the snow in in fact most important, but if you can look pretty at the same time…why not? This is what we call a “No Brainer.”
Finally, let’s take a look at Tittle. Tillie looks sort of silly, if you ask me, because she is SO bundled up in her white fleecy pajamas featuring a polar bear on her chest. Tillie herself sort of looks like a polar bear in these jammies, don’t you think? And as if she didn’t already look like a polar bear, you might also say she looks like an Eskimo, so bundled up, so on top of all this, Tillie decided to wear a pink and white fleece-lined hat that also covers her ears quite well.
The design on the outside of this warm Winter Hat features a flower pattern, which is actually very peculiar for a hat to be worn in Winter, when no flowers grow. But maybe that’s just what we all need in the dead of Winter…a reminder of Flowers and the coming Spring!
Only, as I mentioned before, here in Whimsieville it had been nearly 75 degrees just a few days before we started looking for Winter hats, so I’m not really sure if we’re really about to see flowers laer rather than sooner. The Groundhog says “sooner,” but…can you really trust that Groundhog? I guess we will just have to take it day by day and see what happens…and see if there might yet be another chance before the weather changes for good for us all to put on our Winter Hats and Winter Clothes and go out and play in the snow!
Now, one more thing, before I wind up here. You’ll notice in the pictures above that we are all sitting on a very colorful background, which happens to be a hand-crocheted blanket Miss Chrissy recently got when she and Mr. Russ went on a trip for a Family Reunion, and Miss Chrissy’s sister offered her this blanket. It seems that Miss Chrissy’s grandmother, Violet, once had a sister named Wanda, who LOVED to crotchet, even when she was very old and beginning to go blind, and so she would crochet and crochet lots and lots of blankets, and there are several of these beautiful items floating around in the family, and Miss Chrissy was so delighted to be able to bring this one home. All the bright colors in this blanket sort of remind me of the days way back in the 1960’s, when we Whimsies were much younger, and everything was so groovy! Wouldn’t you agree with me that this beautiful blanket, in addition to having a rich family history, is also “groovy”??
Well, that’s it for now. Finally, I’ll be giving your eyes a break from all those bright colors. Here we are at last, hanging out together on a our pale yellow and violet quilt, just before we decided to go to sleep and dream of all that wonderful snow which…sadly, never happened.
But we don’t mind! Because still, we got to dress up, and have a Fashion Show, and of course, one never knows what the Weatherman might say next!
Of course as Whimsies we always have a very positive attitude, consistent with our cute little watermelon smiles, but as I say…there’s something about 2020 that makes us feel extra-positive! (We could be feeling so positive because we are excited about the new year…or it could just be because Miss Chrissy has promised us that very soon she will be visiting the Thrift Store Boutique to add some new items to our Wardrobe! That, of course, would mean a Fashion Show, which is one of our very favorite things to do…so stay tuned!)
So it’s almost Christmas, and we here in Whimsieville have been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately, and there’s this one song we keep running into, and it begins “Have yourself a merry little Christmas…” And when I take a look around Whimmsieville I see that a lot of the ways Miss Chrissy has been getting ready for the season are indeed little, and very understated.
You see, once upon a time (between when Miss Chrissy was a little girl and had several Whimisies of her own…including me!…and now, when she is a properly grown lady), she had two children of her own, and during those years, she tells us, Christmas was always a BIG deal! The tree was big! The presents were big! (And there were plenty of them!) And the light display outside the house — big, big BIG! But now that her children are grown and have moved out on their own, and it is just her and Mr. Russ, there’s no particular need to do holidays so super big. A little bit of Christmas spirit can go a long, long way.
Now here’s Trixie, and it surprised no one that she instantly gravitated to all the tiny little Christmas presents that are just about to be placed under the tiny little Christmas tree. First of all, all these tiny boxes are delightfully pretty! But even more intriguing…what could possibly be inside each of these miniature treasure chests?
Tootsie, on the other hand, has been intrigued by a couple of very small ornaments that are in fact, so small, they fit very nicely on this little ledge at the end of the fireplace. The first one is a Polish…somebody or other…we’re not exactly sure. But we do know, from what Miss Chrissy tells us, that when one of her favorite aunts visited Poland many, many years ago, she brought back this little Polish doll ornament as a gift. The ornament used to hang on those much bigger Christmas trees from decades ago, but nowadays, Miss Chrissy is fine with giving this very special international ornament a place of honor by the fireplace, where it is so easy to appreciate.
The other ornament here also has a special story. When Miss Chrissy’s children were young, she once went to a class for painting Christmas ornaments, and she chose this Sleepy Bear, because it reminded her of her son, Joey, who had a favorite stuffed bear he would always sleep with. The bear’s name was “Love-a-Bear” and though Joey has long since outgrown him, Miss Chrissy actually still has Love-a-Bear, and it’s unlikely she will ever part with him. Unless…maybe…someday Joey has a child of his own, and wants to give that child a Love-a-Bear? Who knows what might happen!
Finally, Tillie has found some tiny candles which lend such a special glow to the Winter evenings here in Whimsieville. Technically, there are not Christmas ornaments, they are all-around ornaments, but doesn’t it just seem like Christmas is the perfect time for lights in all shapes and sizes? These candles, by the way, are not actually candles, they have batteries to light them up, which in some ways is much nicer, because they never melt and disappear, and there’s no mess, and no chance of knocking one over and causing a fire! On the other hand, they are not scented, and as everyone knows, the scents of Christmas are so wonderful, why not take every opportunity to enjoy them? 
I would show you some pictures of us enjoying our cocoa and cookies but at this very moment, the kettle is about to boil and… Hey!…Wait for me, guys!
As you know, we Whimsies are big fans of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, and even though we no longer sit down here and have a weekly roundtable discussion about it, we still watch and enjoy the show. What you may not know is that some of us in Whimsieville are even more entranced by SHIELD’s sister show, Agent Carter. And some of us (like me) are most entranced by that show’s pivotal character, Howard Stark’s butler, Edwin Jarvis (as portrayed by British actor James D’Arcy).
But then that’s no surprise, because if there’s one word you could use to describe Jarvis’ character it’s that exactly: devoted. As a butler, he is completely devoted to his employer, Howard Stark. Stark could trust him with any secret. As Peggy’s partner in espionage, Jarvis is the picture of reliability. He will do anything to help her. And for his wife…well, here we pull out all the stops. Jarvis is so devoted to Ana that when she is shot by the villainess, even though it turns out she’s going to live and be okay, Jarvis can think of nothing but revenge.
live on to become a part of Tony Stark’s life, to serve him when he is an Avenger, and to provide the inspiration for the brilliant Mr. Stark’s even more brilliant computer, J.A.R.V.I.S.
So, as everyone knows it’s January, and that means Winter is in full force. Now, I am happy to report that Whimsieville is in that portion of the country where the weather gets cold sometimes, but it very rarely gets so FRIGID that you can’t even move because it’s simply too uncomfortable. No, our kind of cold in this part of the country is the kind that makes you glad to turn on the fireplace 
and dress up in your warm winter jammies, and have a nice cup of hot cocoa while sitting in front of The Weather Channel, watching the wall-to-wall coverage about the blizzard currently attacking our neighbors to the North. Oh, we do feel so sorry for those poor people up there, who may lose their Electricity, and their Heat, and will have to stay bundled up in more than simply Winter jammies just to keep from being so terribly uncomfortable. 
First of all we have Tessie, and it appears she has found the comfiest jammies ever stitched together! As you can see, she is all in white fleece, like a little lamb, and not only that, but she’s also wearing a hood to keep her head and ears warm! And not only that, but her hood has little ears on top so she does in fact look somewhat like a little lamb, doesn’t she? I asked Tessie and she said the hood in no way impedes her ability to hear the television coverage of the storm, and she does so enjoy looking like a little lamb, so she’s just going to keep on wearing that hood, even though with the fireplace going, we are nowhere cold enough to actually need such a thing. But that’s Tessie; sometimes she’ll get an idea in her head and just go with it.
Now! If you want to talk about getting an idea in your head and just going with it, you should take a look at Tootsie! This past Christmas Tootsie found these adorable red Santa Claus pajamas, which she wore all during the holidays, and now she barely ever wants to take them off! Tootsie has decided that “red and white stripes” is her new favorite fashion motif, and she looks for stripes in everything she sees! Santa Claus was exceptionally good to Tootsie this year too, this being her first real Christmas in a long, long time, so she’s exceptionally fond of the big man with the large white beard. As everybody knows, I have my own favorite superheroes (Thor…Hulk…) and now Tootsie has hers too.
Since Tillie is Tootsie’s very best friend in the whole world, she’s supporting the Christmas madness by also choosing a pair of Christmas jammies. Tillie’s jammies are pink, though, and covered in multiple images of Santa Claus. The very best part of this outfit, though, if you ask me, is the Santa Claus feet! How darling! Tillie’s outfit does not employ the “red and white stripes” fashion motif seen in Tootsie’s outfit, but I think I detect a red and white polka dot theme around her collar. Well, 
whichever way you go, red and white are the colors of Christmas, and while we all had a wonderful Christmas, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing Christmas jammies all year long, if that’s what you like, I’m thinking once the weather begins to turn, Tillie too will turn her fashion sense to something a little more “season appropriate.”
