Treasured Traditions
It’s hard to tell who enjoys making family memories more—the adults or the kids!
For the holidays, we always get together as a family—and the bigger the gathering, the better. We usually spend Thanksgiving on one coast and Christmas on the other, because my sister and father still live on the East Coast. This year we will be doing Thanksgiving a little bit differently by spending it in New York City, as I will be hosting the Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS so everyone will gather there.
A tradition I love, which we do for almost every holiday, is scrapbooking. I’m an avid album maker. In fact, I’m a fourth-generation scrapbooker. My mom, my grandmother and my great-grandfather taught me how important it is to preserve precious memories, especially for your kids, because the minute you add a child’s photo to an album you communicate that the child matters and is part of a family. Each year, I make a scrapbook from the holiday photos to give as my gift to the family the following year. It always makes for the best gift, as we can reminisce about all of our memories from the previous year—plus scrapbooks are great projects to do with my four-year-old daughter. She has the best time looking at the photos, learning about her family and seeing all the love.
I am always trying to come up with clever ways to do albums as gifts. For example, I recently compiled an “Album of Gratitude” for my father. That type of album is easy because everyone contributes one page for the person receiving the album. We all write why we are grateful for the person and include a few pictures. The one we did for my Dad made him feel beyond special. I even just wrote a book about giving special gifts called Secret Ingredients: Step-by-Step “Recipes” for Creating Meaningful Gifts.
Speaking of “recipes,” many families make it a point to prepare the traditional dishes that hold meaning for them. When our family gets together at this time of year, everyone brings a specialty dish to the holiday table. They each handwrite the recipe, and I use these to create a Family Recipe Book. I give copies of the book as gifts the following year along with the photo albums. That way, everyone has the family recipes for generations to come.
The dish I contribute is “Betty’s Biscuits,” which my late mom made for me at every holiday. When I bake them now, they remind me so much of her and make me feel as if she’s still here somehow.
SINCE WE LAST SPOKE - I’ve been busy!
Co-hosting Entertainment Tonight gives me the opportunity to hear about celebrities’ projects, but also a chance to catch up personally with those who have become my pals, like Jamie Foxx and Julie Bowen. When I chatted with Emmy host Jane Lynch a few weeks befo
re I hosted the Emmy Awards Pre-show, she was deciding whether to bring out the Sue Sylvester sweats. I’m glad she chose to go glamorous and sexy! I am a huge fan of hers as she is such a nice lady, and I was glad to see her shine as host. She told me that all of her Emmy night gowns were byDavid Meister.
Nancy's PICKS
My reliable piece of clothing: I recently discovered a line of clothing, Issue New York, that’s quickly become one of my favorites, especially the cocktail dresses. I wore a beaded, one-shoulder dress for the MDA Telethon I hosted and loved it! It will make such an amazing holiday party dress, too. It’s affordable and even comfortable, so I bought it in three colors: red, silver and royal blue! It’s my “little black dress” this year—just not in black!.
My accessory of the season: My black shawl. It’s great to throw over a cocktail dress or even a work outfit to make it look dressier. A beautiful shawl over your shoulders comes in quite handy during the holidays and will keep
you warm— even inside, where it can be chilly sometimes in the winter!
My holiday makeup look: I tend to go with smoky eyes, but this year I may add a little sparkly eye shadow, which is very “in” right now and dresses up any outfit!
The Rusk product you’ll always find me using at this time of the year: My W8less Hairspray—it’s a Nancy O’Dell “must have” that goes with me wherever I go! I tend to use hairspray all day long, and W8less doesn’t weigh down my hair. I also love my Rusk Deepshine Oil to keep my hair shiny and moist during dry winter months.
Plain Tail to Party Pony
When I don’t have time for a major ’do change between my workday and a holiday party, I rely on a ponytail, which is easy to take from day to night because of the quick ways to glam it up:
• Wrap the ponytail into a bun—instant glam!
• Keep the pony, but wrap a section of hair around the base for a more polished look.
• Add a headband with rhinestones or anything sparkly for festive glamour.
• Attach hair jewelry around the base to dress up the pony.
My glam pony for hosting this year’s Emmy Awards Pre-show!