vests

This weekend we got fitted for costumes, and I got all artsy with my camera in the costume storage room. Which was also the women's dressing room.

Costume fitting was really easy this year - unlike in this picture, women do not have vests, just a dress and an apron. Two pieces of clothing. Well, three with a petticoat. Try 'em on, get approved by the costume ladies, and boom, you're done. I think mine was hideous, but people looking at it said otherwise, so there's hope. And whatever, it's all about what looks good from far away.

I had beautiful costumes the last two years and it was so exciting to put them on - not just because they were good colors for me, but because they were just so *feminine* in this old-fashioned way. I throw on a floor-length skirt with a petticoat and an apron, and I'm looking for my child and my cooking utensils.

And this year I actually get a kid! And a husband! I've never had a kid before! My first year, all the kids went to the older generation of Christmas-show-ers. It's not so odd nowadays for a 50-year-old to have an 8-year-old, but it was pretty unusual in the times we're representing (which varies from year to year, but generally it's before in vitro fertilization and egg donation). But the younger generation of me, G.Dog, and Miss S has grown so much over the past few years, now we get the kids and the old folks can settle back and be grandparents.

Ah, family.