Christmas recap and j.crew reviews: viv flannel jeweled flat, biella velvet loafers, pear bracelet.

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas if you celebrate! We had a wonderful couple of days enjoying family, friends, food and laughter. Our tradition is to celebrate at my parents' house on Christmas Eve first. Santa makes a quick appearance for all the kids, hands them a gift, then rushes out. While the kids have been watching a Christmas movie, he has already piled gifts high around the family room.
With a little help from some elves:

It's then a mad dash to open them all in the typical flurry of excitement. It seems they all were happy with their presents and were off to enjoy a few of them while the adults open gifts. We especially love our tradition of the funny gift. We all choose names after Christmas and have the year to come up with something funny for that person. This year went exceptionally well, and by the end of the night, my stomach hurt not from too much food, but from laughing hysterically.
My award for being an official Champion Blogger:

Christmas day, DH and the munchkin and I were able to wake up in our own house for the first time, and enjoy a little family exchange. Santa left a few extra presents under our tree.

I was a very good girl, and DH gave me some fabulous gifts, including navy Hunter boots, this Anthropologie clock (love!), the Clinton Kelly book, a Purdue hoodie, and some more goodies.

The sweetest gifts to open were the ones we had our munchkin pick out in secret for us. For me, he picked out a beautiful blue necklace and earrings. He knows I like my bling. :) Apparently, he saw the necklace and immediately knew it was perfect. Then he set out in search of matching earrings. Love! For DH, he picked out a lovingly random assortment of items, from a pen holder to a soap from a craft fair (which smells hideous btw). A 5-year-old at Christmas is amazing.

I did receive a box of goodies from la Crew as well. I want to try things out while there's no final sale, and we're still good on that as of this morning. The promo (30/40% off) continues through today as well. A few reviews from the sale section:

First are the Viv Flannel Jeweled Flat in navy. I absolutely love these, they are gorgeous. I had a feeling they'd be better IRL than online, and was right. The flannel is definitely navy, a dark one, but doesn't look black to me. The jewels are a lovely color, a deep red. I went with my normal Viv/J.Crew flat size of a 9 (so size up half from your normal size). Very comfortable.

The Collection Biella Velvet Tassel Loafers in vintage burgundy are lovely as well. They are a very pretty dark burgundy wine color, with patent black tassels. I ordered a size 9 and feel like they are a touch big. I didn't love them on my feet personally, but I think they're such a pretty shoe.

The Pear Bracelet is a whopping $14.99 with the discount. I don't have any jewelry in these colors, so thought I'd give it a try. Very fun and pretty!

Anthropologie started their Tag Sale this morning, with 25% off sale items (and 50% off certain holiday trim items) with code 25BELOW. Things are selling fast online. I continue my throw pillow obsession, and ordered this adorable pillow, though it was hard to choose between that one and the penguin.

Kate Spade also began a promo this morning, 25% of sale with code DECEMBER25 through Jan 5.

Finally, just wanted to mention that the Windowpane Peplum Top I just reviewed here is on sale at Banana for $49.99 plus an extra 50% off sale, so only $25! Well worth it.

Hope you all are enjoying a quiet, lazy day! I had enough laziness yesterday, so am off out and about for a bit today!