By Anne Badanes, The Pajama Company Holiday Editor

First impressions are tough. For me, I usually wonder whether my clothes are right when I meet someone new. Ta Da…right now my attire is perfect as I am wearing my favorite plaid pajamas while I write this blog for The Pajama Company. Here is the the story of my pajama passion.

During my college years, long flannel nightgowns were popular and I wore them for years. While they hid a stomach full of late night pizza, they made me look like an over sized Wendy in Peter Pan. Moreover, they’d get tangled around my legs in bed. At a bridal shower, flannel nightgowns were called armor for new brides.  I heard that and quickly switched to SSS nightwear–short, silk and sexy. Not only were those flimsy things chilly, but they were hard to launder. Once I had a baby who woke up several times each night, I needed something else to wear to bed.

Fortunately, that was about the year that Ellie joined our family as my new sister in law. She was one of the first women I knew who loved pajamas and always looked cute in them. That was years before she began The Pajama Company. Yes, she’s a  woman who has walked her talk for years–the pajama evangelist. She gave me a pair of pajama bottoms and I became a convert.

Currently, my favorite pajamas are the ones I am wearing now, a pink plaid pair that was left here when my daughter moved out. I have a drawer stuffed with my own pajamas, but this pair hung alone on a hook in her bedroom when she left for college. As I straightened up her room, my emotions were in limbo between tears and the elation of an empty nest. I saw the lonely PJs and remembered all the mornings when I was unable to get her out of bed. They were soft and smelled of her. I paused on the way to the laundry basket, wondering whether to launder them or retain her scent.

Finder’s keepers. They are my favorites.