New Year’s Eve 2019

I couldn’t remember if I made resolutions last year, so I went back and found last year’s New Year’s Eve post which reminded me we were still neck-deep in the move and I was pretty busy thinking about how if Paul were to die suddenly I could move back to my old house. That was not the right head-space for making resolutions.

I do have a resolution this year, and it’s to put up wall art. I have put up three things total, all on nails that were already in the walls when we moved in. I have not put in a single additional nail, because I don’t know which walls are horsehair plaster (it’s most of them, but some renovations allegedly were done with sheetrock), and I also don’t know if we have the kind of horsehair plaster walls that do okay as long as you’re gentle / use special horsehair-plaster-coddling techniques, or if we have the kind where you try to hammer in a nail and a baseball-size chunk of the wall falls in powder to the floor, and then as you look on in despair, a crack begins a slow gradual spread from the chunked place outward across the rest of the wall. One of the kids rocked an upholstered chair too hard and it bonked into a wall and left a deep shattery powdery dent, which makes me think it’s likely we have the latter kind of wall.

But Paul has said that if I tell him which wall art and where I want it, he will figure out the nails. And I think wall art is important—or at least, I know each time when I took DOWN the wall art when moving, the whole apartment/house suddenly felt bare and echoey and generic and sad. I think putting up my familiar wall art would make this house feel more like mine, and it seems like a bad sign that it’s been more than a year and I haven’t done it. So I would like to do that this year.

Hostess Gifts

We are going to an afternoon, kids-invited-too holiday party today (we are bringing one kid, the one who is friends with one of the other family’s kids), and I am still trying to decide what to bring as a little hostess gift. Normally I would bring a bottle of wine, and I do think that’s an excellent back-up idea, but for an event that includes kids and takes place in the afternoon I’d wondered if I could think of something a little more familyish. I’d thought we were all set with our idea to bring a box of chocolates from a local chocolate shop, but then I looked around at our own house and I thought probably everyone else is also drowning (happily! but plentifully) in an abundance of treats.

We don’t know the other family well, which makes it more challenging. But also: we’d LIKE to know them better, and we are taking this invitation as an indication that they feel similarly, so it adds a little to the fun of this mission: it would be neat to find something that made them like us more or think we’re cool. *wrings hands friendingly*

Flowers, maybe? I have a bunch of inexpensively-acquired vases, so I could bring flowers in a vase they could keep; or I could bring a potted plant. I’m not saying either of those are cool ideas, but they’re classics, and maybe I should save cool for when they know us better and I can say “Here, I brought you these scented candles someone else gave me, plus a box of the fancier kind of crackers I thought we’d need over the holidays but we didn’t.”

Would coffee be a nice hostess gift? There’s a nearby place that does their own roasting/grinding and sells the coffee in cute overpriced locally-labeled jars. I could choose a couple of jars. What if they don’t drink coffee? What if they don’t drink wine? What if they’re allergic to plants? Now I am getting a little unnecessarily fretful. There is no need to get all fretty here: they will give away what they don’t/can’t use, and they will not think we are dumb for not knowing.

What do you like to bring as a hostess gift? Has anyone brought you a hostess gift that was unusual or interesting or made you think they were cool people to be friends with?

Swistle Fundraiser for Immigration Justice CHECKING IN FOR ANXIETY REASONS

Let’s have an end-of-year fundraiser check-in. Ever since I posted the fundraiser back in July, one of my primary “lie awake fretting about it” concerns has been that I will FORGET TO SEND A TOKEN, or that I will send a token and IT WILL GET LOST IN THE MAIL. So let’s check in at this point: if you were supposed to have received something by now, but have not, you should LET ME KNOW. It will make us BOTH feel better.

Calendar Twins should have received their calendars last week. I chose Birds, which has since been marked down if you want to be calendar twins with us. If you signed up to be a Calendar Twin and you didn’t get your calendar and I have just ruined the surprise, you should email me: swistle at gmail dot com.

All cloth napkins have been sent out. All favorite Christmas books have been sent out. All favorite baby-naming books have been sent out. If you signed up for cloth napkins, a favorite Christmas book, or a baby-naming book, and you haven’t received them, you should email me and tell me so: swistle at gmail dot com.

Postcard subscriptions have been going out as scheduled. If you are on the monthly plan, you should have received one every month starting in July (six postcards so far); if you are on the every-other-monthly plan, you should have received one every other month starting in August (three postcards so far). (December postcards might not have all arrived: I was a little later than I expected to be, and second-class mail takes longer.) If you are a postcard subscriber and you’ve missed a postcard, email me and let me know. (If you happen to know which month you missed, I’ve kept track of which one I sent each month, so I may be able to re-send the very one you were supposed to have received. If not, I’ll extend your subscription by a month.)

If you signed up for a greeting card with a delivery date of Christmas or earlier, you should have received it by now. If you didn’t, you should email me. (If you signed up for an “anytime” delivery, you may or may not have received it; I realize this is not helpful. I will do another check-in post later when EVERYTHING should have been delivered, so you’ll have another chance.)

If you signed up for a care package or treats box with a delivery date of Christmas or earlier, you should have received it by now. If you didn’t, you should email me. (If you signed up for an “anytime” delivery, you may or may not have received it; I realize this is not helpful. I will do another check-in post later when EVERYTHING should have been delivered, so you’ll have another chance.)

If you signed up for a piece of my SUBPAR POTTERY or a SWISTLE SKIRT, it should have long-since arrived. If it has not, you should email me.

If you signed up for BEE STICKERS, BEE EARRINGS, and/or a BEE ORNAMENT, it should have long-since arrived. If it has not, you should email me.

Just to address another of my lying-awake fears: If you email me about this and you don’t hear back from me, THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE and means I am for whatever crazy reason not getting your emails. Try me on Twitter, or from a different email address, or leave a blog comment, and I WILL get back to you.

In fact: I responded to allllll the contributions at the time to confirm that I got the email, so if you sent a contribution (even if you didn’t want a token) and didn’t hear back from me at the time, THAT ALSO IS IMPOSSIBLE and means for whatever crazy reason I didn’t get your email. Try me on Twitter, or from a different email address, or leave a blog comment, and I WILL get back to you.

Gift Ideas: Last-Minute Panic Purchases

I meant to do a lot more gift-idea posts this year, but time got away from me. I did a lot of my own shopping last-minute, and now I have that frantic feeling of the final days just slipping down the drain, with most sites already no longer possible for Christmas delivery. I will at least post a jumbled assortment of some of the things I have recently ordered, just in case I am not the only one who seems to be about to drop the ball this year.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Set of three Fidget Jr. toys for William. I don’t know! I don’t know! He said he needed fidget things, and that they had to be quiet ones because of his roommates, and I didn’t know what to choose, and so I wasn’t going to choose anything, and then I was looking over his gifts and they were ALL practical (boots, meal-replacement powders, an educational book), so I panicked and spent $15 on this set of three little toys. The reviews were good, at least.

 

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Two pounds of chocolate-covered espresso beans for Paul’s sister. Paul’s sister isn’t married, doesn’t have children, isn’t very social, and she and Paul have hardly any family left, so I am really careful when choosing her gifts: I try to do an assortment that could Make A Christmas (something cozy, something fun to do, something to read, some treats), in case they’re the only gifts she gets. I was going to put a regular-size package of chocolate-covered coffee beans in the box we sent, but I couldn’t find them at the store where I got them last time, and I thought that was fine and we just wouldn’t do those this year, but I KNOW she loves them, and so I panicked and ordered two pounds of them shipped directly to her. Also these slippers from her wish list.

 

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Word-a-Day calendar for Rob. I picked up Rob from college and we were driving home and he mentioned casually that a word-a-day calendar would be a good gift idea for him. He is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for, and also his birthday is close to Christmas so all the year’s impossibleness is clumped together, so although I didn’t order the calendar while actually still driving the car, I did order it within fifteen minutes of arriving home.

 

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Pretty Ticonderoga pencils for kids’ stockings. This is the brand I always buy, but I hadn’t seen these pretty ones before. Target had four packages of them and I needed five, so I ordered a fifth along with the word-a-day calendar.

 

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Working Hands hand cream for Paul. Paul was using some of my hand lotion and he said wistfully “I like that round tin you got for my stocking last year, but I have that at work.” I couldn’t remember if I bought that at Target or at Home Depot, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get to the store before I needed it, so I ordered it. I impulse-added the matching manly lip balm.

 

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Dungeons & Dragons Spellbook Cards for Henry. I thought I’d already ordered them!! I’d added them to my “gifts purchased” list!! Then I saw them in my cart, way down the list in items saved for later!! I double-checked to make sure it wasn’t something I’d re-added to the cart instead of taking them out of saved-for-later, but no!!

 

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DreamSky radio alarm clock for Edward. Edward has had “radio alarm clock” on his list for like three years now, ever since his old one broke (via top-bunk plummet), and I keep dithering and not finding any with familiar brands and not wanting to risk it, and this year I was like “THE CHILD WANTS A RADIO ALARM CLOCK, THAT IS SUCH A PITIFULLY REASONABLE AND PRACTICAL REQUEST, GET THE CHILD A RADIO ALARM CLOCK,” so I bought this one. The reviews are pretty okay. We’ll see.

 

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Mpow wireless Bluetooth earbuds for William and Elizabeth. They both wanted some wireless Bluetooth earbuds, and that is sooooooo boring to choose and there are sooooooo many choices and I have no idea what’s best, and finally I just chose some that were the same brand as the extremely successful over-the-ear kind that Paul and Rob and Edward all use and love, and we will just hope for the best.

 

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404 Not Found coloring book for Henry. He’s had this on his wish list since his birthday, but I once saw it as low as $8-something so I kept waiting for it to go back down, and finally a couple of days ago I thought “SAVING TWO DOLLARS IS NOT WORTH SIX MONTHS OF MONITORING” and ordered it.

 

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Cat wizard t-shirt for Henry. Pretty much all of Henry’s Christmas gifts were last-minute this year; I just had a particularly hard time deciding on what to get him. I needed a clothing gift for him, and nothing seemed right, but then I saw this shirt and ordered it so fast. He is very into wizard-type stuff and also cat-type stuff, and we have a fair number of shirts by The Mountain so I know they’re nice and cottony.

 

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How To by Randall Monroe for everybody. This is another item I thought I’d already ordered, then found it still in my cart. I do not know what my problem is this year.

 

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Dungeon Mayhem game, for a gift-swap party. Henry was invited to a somewhat impromptu party for 7th grade boys who like D&D, and there will be a gift-swap, and this is what he chose to bring.

 

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20-pack scrunchies, for Elizabeth. Love of scrunchies continues in her age group; she wears one or more from this pack of velvet scrunchies every day (in her hair, on her wrist, littering the entire house). I saw these and considered them, but the fabric looked a little iffy—kind of slippery/dressy rather than what I thought she might like. Then she and I were in Claire’s yesterday shopping for her friends’ gifts, and she saw scrunchies JUST LIKE THESE and said she loved them and that she liked the fabric, so I went home and ordered them. I’m also writing “$25 Claire’s shopping trip” on an index card; I was going to buy a gift card, but Claire’s wanted $6.95 to ship it to me, and this way we don’t end up permanently carrying around a Claire’s gift card with, like, $1.27 left on it.

 

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Wee rolling pin, for Paul. He was making pizza and said with some exasperation that what he really needed was a small handleless rolling pin for getting the crust how he wanted it. I made a bored, not-really-listening sound, and then scooted sneakily into the other room and ordered this.

 

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Garnier rose facial mist, for the cleaners. I primarily gave them cash, because I have read enough articles now on that sort of topic, but at the last second I wanted something slightly more festive and fun than a couple of envelopes, so I added a rosewater mist and a bar of nice chocolate each, and it did look much more festive and fun.

 

(Also, I cannot proof-read this because my family all came home while I was writing it, and they keep walking into the room as if they’re doing it on purpose to mess with me. So if any links don’t work or pictures aren’t right, I will fix it later!)

Thwarted Plans of Various Kinds

In a week full of hectic obligations, I had something to look forward to: one of the obligations came with a side dish of a night all by myself in a motel and then a planned repeat of my cherished breakfast at IHOP. But then it was ruined by weather. Well, I still had a nice time: the driving part BEFORE the weather was unusually terrific, and nobody tailgated me, and I got good postcards at a rest stop, and I was in a great mood, and the ice cream machine at McDonald’s was working (?????) and so I got a hot fudge sundae, and I had a lovely time playing and winning the “Pop song or CHRISTIAN pop song?” game.

The last time I mentioned that game, someone signed me up for alllllll the Christian newsletters, which I think is the wrong answer if you want to be competitive in the “What Would Jesus Do?” game. DO we picture Jesus huffing off to his computer and simmering in the delicious spite of signing someone up for a bunch of junk mail? Or do we picture him saying “Ooo, ooo, my turn, my turn, I want to guess this one!” Twice I heard that new Harry Styles song and thought Jesus would be fooled by that one FOR SURE.

Harry Styles: “Walk in your rainbow paradise…”
Jesus: “Oh, yes, that is DEFINITELY one of mine!”
Harry Styles, continuing: “…Strawberry lipstick state of mind…”
Jesus: “Oh My Father God, WHY AM I SO BAD AT THIS”
Swistle: *smugly adds another tally mark to her column*

 

I have not yet done my Christmas cards, and I do not like to be last-minute about cards, and also I LIKE doing cards so this is perplexing. I addressed the envelopes a number of weeks ago, but I seem to be having trouble writing the cards and putting them into those envelopes. Part of it was that I ordered photos from Shutterfly because they’ll print text on the backs, which saves me from writing our names dozens of times; but they arrived and the text was truncated, so that they said “Thistle family, Christmas 2019: Elizabeth,”. Just like that, with the comma and then no one else’s names. So I contacted Shutterfly, and somehow this took an HOUR to deal with, and finally I had to ask for a refund because they said there was nothing they could do to make sure a re-order wouldn’t arrive printed exactly the same way, and they wouldn’t rush the redo or anything, so the replacement photos wouldn’t have arrived until tomorrow and still might have been wrong. And I think that experience sapped the life out of the cards project. I’d been so ahead of the game! Addressing the cards! Ordering the prints in plenty of time! And then: prints ruined, start all over. It was too much, apparently. Well. I need to rally. I will do it right now.

Annual Calendar Post, 2020 Calendar Edition!

IT IS TIME.

This year there is more at stake, because several of you signed up to be CALENDAR TWINS as your fundraiser incentive. CALENDAR TWINS means that I will send you a copy of the same calendar I choose for myself, which is very bold and risk-taking of you and I admire you for it. I won’t tell anyone which calendar I chose until AFTER your calendars have arrived, so it will be a FULL SURPRISE.

This gives the whole post a fun little smack of suspense. I always list SOME calendars I’m seriously considering plus a bunch that DO very much appeal to me but I’m posting them more in case someone else wants them / has a good gift recipient for them. But this time when you see all those extra calendars some of you will be thinking “She always says she doesn’t want twelve months of the same thing, so she wouldn’t REALLY choose Goats in Trees or Men in Kilts. …right?” I GUESS YOU’LL FIND OUT, WON’T YOU! (But while I have you here: if you are one of my Calendar Twins and one of the possibilities listed below contains a phobia or Severe Dislike for you, you should let me know.)

There are two calendars I’ve had the 2019 versions of in my cart since last year, because they were almost-buys last time and I wanted to see if they had new versions this year. One of them (the Angie Lewin) does not have a new version, but the other one does:


Este MacLeode calendar. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. So bright and colorful and cheery.

 

After that, it is just madly into the calendar fray.

(image from Amazon.com)

Feathered Friends calendar. Charming, colorful, whimsical, full of birds.

 

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Pusheen calendar. The children don’t usually notice my kitchen calendar, but the year I chose Pusheen EVERYONE was into it.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Space Cats calendar. It’s VERY TEMPTING to consider this one, MOSTLY because of how very surprised the calendar twins would be.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Farmer’s Market calendar. This one meets my preference for a calendar that is beautiful and comforting without being too cheerful or optimistic to deal with when I’m looking ahead to a busy day/week.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Wanderlust calendar. I do not have wanderlust myself, but I do not object to other people wandering and taking beautiful pictures of where they went, so that I can see the places without having to go there.

 

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A F*cking 2020 calendar. “Includes profane stickers”! My kids are old enough now that I feel pretty free to have a calendar like this one, and I’d say this might be perfect for right next to my desk. And look at October! It’s terrific. But this is not what I’d choose for the kitchen.

 

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Garden of Delights calendar. I need squares to write things in, so this one is ruled out for me, but I think it is so pretty. Maybe for next to my desk, where I don’t need so much square-writing.

 

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Fairy Houses calendar. Imagine being so very wee, and having a charming wee little house.

 

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Charley Harper calendar. I have a puzzle of one of the months (Tree of Life) and it’s a great puzzle, and that’s almost a reason to choose this calendar.

 

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Gustave Baumann, Small Untroubled World calendar. This upcoming year is an election year, and we are going to need soft calming scenes in soft comforting colors.

 

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William S. Rice calendar. Another in the soft/calming/comforting category.

 

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Kawase Hasui calendar. A third soft/calming/comforting option.

 

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Klimt Landscapes calendar. Yet another. This one is a strong contender.

 

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Flower Crown Animals calendar. Problem: this would absolutely be a final finalist, but there is less room than usual for the squares, and I need the squares.

 

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I Adulted calendar. Has a certain frantic, lowering-the-baseline, let’s-just-get-through-this appeal.

 

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Les Fleurs calendar. I love this immediately. I was looking specifically at flower calendars, and they all appealed to me in general but some of them all seemed to be the same palette (every page in pinks/purples) and others seemed like pictures I’d already seen a million times (tulips in sunshine! one entire sunflower filling the page! etc.). This one feels fresh and interesting and different. But the one review has legitimate complaints: there is a little uninteresting comment on each page (I can live with that), and there are no lines between the squares (I don’t know if I can live with that).

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Fleurs calendar. This one is also very pretty, and has lines between the squares.

 

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Redouté calendar. Another nice floral assortment, better than I’d expected from the cover.

 

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William Morris calendar. I would buy more of this sort of thing if the selections were more SEASONAL. Like, in December I want spruce/red/green, and in spring I want flowers/pastels.

 

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Guinea pig calendar. I had a guinea pig calendar one year next to my desk, and it remained cute all year, and the children were interested in it and enjoyed it.

 

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Bee calendar. BEES.

 

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Garden of Dreams calendar. This is so close to what I’m looking for. I love most of the pages, but a couple of them cross into Slightly Creepy for me. Plus: no squares.

 

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Masha D’yans calendar. I’ve had this one twice, and have been happy with it, and I recommend it.

 

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Feline calendar. Do you remember earlier, when I was talking about how I like flower calendars but sometimes they seem trite or boring? Same with cat calendars: looking at a cat calendar, I sometimes feel as if I’ve seen all the images before. But not this one.

 

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Pooch calendar. I like this dogs one too, and the whole dog concept is a soothing one for me.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Rebecca Campbell calendar. These are interesting to look at and may cross the line into slightly too surreal.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

The Bird calendar. WHAT IS THIS WONDERFULNESS I AM LOOKING AT

 

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Birds of the World calendar. There are too many good calendars to choose from this year. This one is pretty to look at AND educational.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Birds calendar. I MEAN! I would choose this one for December’s bird expression alone. No lines between columns of squares, but it occurs to me I could fix that with a ruler and a fine-tip marker.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Bodleian Library calendar. I looked just to see if there were any library calendars and HECC YES THERE IS A LIBRARY CALENDAR

Bolstering Ideas for After the Holidays

I am taking so many ideas from the comments on the I Hate Winter post. Just for starters, I am ALL IN on the idea of buying a lot of interesting Alternative Lights on post-Christmas clearance, calling them fairy/twinkle lights rather than Christmas lights, and having LIGHTS FOR THE REST OF WINTER. I think I saw some snowflake-shaped ones that would be perfect for January, and then YES to red/white for February, YES to green/white for March, YES, I am IN, YES, LET’S DO THIS.

Someone asked if I had a mood light and I do, because a few weeks ago Paul bought one and put it on my desk in front of me and plugged it in and switched it on. I sit in front of it every morning while I am having breakfast. I don’t know if it’s helping, but it has the benefit of feeling like there is something I am doing about this. The exact one he bought is no longer on the site at all for some reason, but it’s a Verilux HappyLight Lumi VT31 and looks roughly like the VT22 shown here; the main difference seems to be that mine has three different levels of light working up to 10,000 whatevers of light, and the VT22 is only the 10,000 whatevers.

YES to taking/upping vitamin D. My doctor told me awhile back to take 1-2 of whatever the dose is I’m taking (that is, of whatever dose she told me to take, which I’ve forgotten and the vitamin cupboard is so far away), so I take 1/day in summer and I take 2/day in winter. Again: I don’t know if it’s helping, but it feels like I am Doing Something, which is helpful no matter what.

YES to Julia’s reminder that before the end of this month, we will hit the solstice and then every day will be longer. It makes a huge difference to me to KNOW the days are on the upswing, even if I can’t tell yet.

YES to Blythe appreciating that at least this weather is a good match for one’s mood, as opposed to the RUDE SLAP of beautiful sunny weather when everything is terrible.

YES to KC’s idea of planting some seeds indoors and watching their hopeful little sproutings. Basil is a GREAT idea.

YES to Lynn’s hot drinks. So comfortingly WARM on the tum and the hands.

YES to Phancymama’s winter cocktails. My favorite winter drink is Drambuie, which is not a cocktail but it is fancy. Also, I sometimes drink brandy: I hate the taste, but literature has taught me that it’s good for health, warmth, nerves, and shock, all of which seem PERFECT for winter.

YES to Liz’s reminder that winter might be lousy, but that’s what makes it so cozy to be indoors with a book and a hot drink / winter cocktail / box of chocolate / stack of books. Summer evenings have their own charms, but “coziness” is not one of them.

YES to my sister-in-law reminding me of no mosquitoes/ticks and no leg-shaving and not being all sweaty/sticky all the time!

YES to StephLove’s wish that Christmas came a little later in winter when we needed it more. Paul and I accidentally re-invented the timing: I was telling him about Julia saying it was cheering that soon the days would be getting longer, and then I said it was nice it happened right around Christmas, just as he said we ought to have some sort of big celebration right around that time of year to mark that cheering shift.

 

Also. I have had a thought. I love having a countdown-to-Christmas calendar, but that just adds one more sad thing AFTER Christmas: no more happy little treat each day. What if we were to buy Advent / Countdown to Christmas calendars on clearance and then use them AFTER CHRISTMAS?? Like, start them on the day AFTER Christmas. Or actually: I am usually still pretty good through New Year’s Eve. So I will buy some and start using them on January 1st. I bought a Target’s 12 Days of Beauty one already on a Black Friday deal, and I’m going to save it until January. (I see it is now on a buy-one-get-one-50%-off deal, which is very close to as good as the deal I got, which was 30% all beauty sets. This might be nice for buying one for yourself and one for a winter-hating friend. Or one for yourself, one for your 14-year-old daughter who gets into your make-up/moisturizers now. Or one for yourself, a DIFFERENT set for your 14-year-old daughter who wants to try false eyelashes, heaven help us.)

It wouldn’t have to be an advent/12-days/countdown calendar per se: any of those gift sets they put on clearance after the holidays would work. Like, say you found a Burt’s Bees gift set of lip balms and lotions on clearance: then you could let yourself take out one item from the gift set each day, either your pick or else choosing one without peeking. Or let’s say you found a Burt’s Bees gift set, a hostess-gift box of assorted teas, a gift set of the face mists Miss Grace has us all using these days, a gift set of nail polishes, and a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter trees, all on post-holiday clearance: you could let yourself choose one little treat each day, whatever was most appealing. Today a face mist! The next day a peanut-butter tree! The next day a lip balm! The next day a packet of tea! Maybe then another lip balm before moving on to a nail polish! Or if you prefer surprises, you could open all the boxes and jumble all the items together into a bag and reach in each day without looking. Or you could simplify the whole thing and instead buy a big bag of candy and then reach in all day every day whenever.

I feel like with the “fairy lights until daffodils” concept and the “little treat every day” concept, we might be able to ride this out.

I Would Find It Easier To Think Positively If I Didn’t Hate Winter So Much

I don’t know why adding a part-time job has SO DEPLETED my available time, well beyond what I would have expected based on the number of hours, but also it’s The Holidays and that is certainly contributing. I credit Elizabeth with getting me over the hurdle of decorating this year: she was like “Girl. We need to get out the Christmas dishes,” and I find her very persuasive, and also she will HELP with the tasks she suggests, and also she is the kind of persistent where you might as well just give in because you won’t stop hearing her calm, gentle, repeated suggestions until you do, and so we DID get out the Christmas dishes, and then we got out the Christmas bird and the Christmas llama and the Christmas mugs and the Christmas everything else, and all of those things are very happy to see.

And the Christmas lights are up. Christmas Light Time is my favorite time of year. I am trying not to pre-dread the dark winter days ahead when the Christmas lights come down and their absence is deeply felt. (I extremely relate to this comic about the two stages of winter.) Maybe this year I will leave the lights up until there are daffodils.

I am trying to Think! More! Positively! even though I hate that whole concept so I am not sure why I am attempting it, except that I am hoping not to plummet as far this winter as I did last winter. The new job helps: doing something active and productive each day feels good, and also I am nice and warm for those few hours at least. When I get home from work I do Preventative Warmth: I put on my wool socks and my warm slippers and several layers of warm tops, and I bring another warm top or a throw blanket to wherever I am going to be, since when I get to a certain level of Chilly and Sad I find it difficult to make myself do anything about it, and instead sit in despair noticing how the tip of the nose really does get distinctly cold.

Anyway, one of my exercises in Thinking! Positive! was to find something good to say about winter, particularly the post-Christmas part of winter, and what I came up with is that all winter long I can think happily about how spring is coming next. (The downfall of spring is that all spring I am dreading summer. But the nice thing about summer is that I can look forward to fall! Unfortunately all fall I am dreading winter.)

Let’s see, more positive things about winter. I love a lot of my cold-weather clothes. (I hate a lot of my hot-weather clothes.) I like flannel sheets and heavy warm bedding. The snow looks pretty when it is falling. I can’t think of anything else. I hate winter.

I hate dealing with snow. I hate driving on icy/snowy roads. I hate worrying that snow/ice will ruin plans. I hate slushy parking lots. I hate how snow/ice build up so that parking lots and driveways get smaller and smaller. I hate how early it gets dark, and I hate the combination of cold/dark, which is SO MUCH COLDER than cold/light. I hate trying to bring in multiple loads of groceries without tracking snow/slush into the house. I hate all the boot/shoe/slipper changes.

Raisins

My big kids are home, and I have been baking and cooking while they sleep in until I wake them at 2:00 in the afternoon. This morning when Paul got up at 4:00 (he gets up early to avoid the dealbreaker traffic on his commute, but now can’t break the habit on days he doesn’t go to work), Rob was still awake, and didn’t go to bed until 6:00. I am trying not to be concerned, but that really doesn’t seem right. *forehead fret-lines deepen*

This morning Paul made cinnamon buns, which was delightful, and such a perfect smell to wake up to, and such a nice addition to breakfast before I start on another day of cooking. I want to say all that first, so you know I know what a lovely thing this was, because NEXT I want to tell you that he put raisins in them, which is not the weird thing: the weird thing is that he put raisins in them FOR ME.

Reader, it is tempting to exaggerate here and say that I HATE raisins, or to say “That man has never seen me eat a raisin,” or whatever, and neither of those would be exactly true, but they have the FEEL of truth when what I am trying to convey is how close I came to adding this to the “Evidence of early-onset Alzheimer’s?” list. I WILL eat a raisin, and in fact a couple of decades ago I used to add them deliberately to Grape-Nuts, and I did enjoy that combination; I also used to eat Raisin Bran, so the case against my claim of not liking raisins has weak points. Also, recently I had lunch at Panera and they had an oatmeal-raisin cookie concept to which they had added dried berries, and I chose that on purpose and paid money for it and ate it. But the idea that anyone would ADD RAISINS to something, on purpose, FOR ME, is…extremely odd. I would say my USUAL reaction to “things with raisins in them” is shudder/avoid. I appreciate that other people like/love raisins, and I understand it because there are similar things that I like that other people don’t like, but if you LOVE raisins in cinnamon rolls I do hope you understand that that information is relevant only if you are explaining why Paul added raisins for YOU.

When Paul first told me he had added raisins to the cinnamon buns had not yet revealed that he considered that An Act of Love, I reacted with an incredulous “WHY??” After he explained it was for me, I said “But we both hate raisins in things? Especially WARM raisins?” and he said that HE hated raisins in things but that I was always choosing food that had things in it that he hated. I’m not sure that explanation improved anything.

Well. I ate a cinnamon bun with raisins in it, because it is not possible to wake up to Cinnamon Bun Scent and then not consume cinnamon buns, and it was fine—especially because Paul does not normally cook with raisins (because we both dislike raisins, particularly warm raisins) so he doesn’t know you have to soak them first if you want them to retain moisture during baking, so they were small and shriveled rather than squishy and plump. Which, for someone who dislikes raisins, particularly warm raisins, is a good thing.

I just want to say again, because I think this kind of thing is difficult to explain without inviting misunderstanding, that I am not sharing (1) a story of how I don’t appreciate that I am married to someone who makes homemade cinnamon rolls, or (2) a story of how I don’t appreciate that I am married to someone who tries to do something he’ll think I like (especially nice when it’s something HE doesn’t like), but rather: (3) a story of how surreal it is when the partner of OVER HALF MY LIFE does something such as add raisins to something because he knows how much I love raisins, when I do not in fact even LIKE raisins, and he never sees me eat raisins, and he and I have discussed on multiple occasions how much we dislike raisins (particularly warm raisins).

Gift Ideas: Happy Acquisitions of the Past Year

All year I have meant to tell you about this blender:

(image from Amazon.com)

Ninja Professional Countertop Blender. It was with huge regret that I let go of my old blender, a Braun with a glass pitcher that was with me through two decades of pregnancy smoothies and baby food and frozen coffees. I’d replaced the little thingie on the bottom when the plastic part finally gave way, but then it finally gave way a second time and the replacement part was no longer available. I resentfully put “blender” on my wish list, and my parents bought me this one for Christmas last year, and it was an adjustment but now I love it.

The main thing I love about it is that it comes with two travel cups that fit with their own attachment to the blender base. I don’t know what my problem is with “getting the whole blender dirty for just one smoothie” or whatever, but it’s a hurdle I couldn’t get over, and these cups remove that hurdle. All summer, nearly every single day I made myself a frozen coffee drink. And if Paul wanted one too, he used the other cup. It is wonderful. It does a great job pulverizing ice for slushy cold drinks. I recommend it.

While we’re discussing sentimental kitchen appliances, I will say a thing or two about my new coffee maker:

(image from Amazon.com)

Cuisinart 14-cup Programmable Coffeemaker. I bought this in January after the sudden demise of my old coffee maker, and I love it. I like that the coffee filter and coffee go in under a top-lifting lid. I like that the burner will stay on for up to 4 hours, and you can pick how long (I chose 2 hours). I like that the coffee is nice and hot. I like that the carafe is clear. I like that I can program it to be ready when I come downstairs in the morning. I like that I can switch off the option of a beep that tells me the coffee is ready. I’ve just been really happy with it overall.

 

This is on one hand ridiculous and on the other hand it works great, which makes it a good gift idea for someone who likes kitchen toys:

(image from Amazon.com)

Partu Sous Vide cooker. (Sous vide is pronounced like the woman’s nickname Sue, followed by the first syllable of vida in Living the Vida Loca, with slightly more emphasis on VEED than on soo. Soo-VEED.) Combine with a sous vide container (we started with the 7 quart, which I’d say is about the right size for a normal household, but now Paul would kind of like a bigger one) and, if the gift budget will stretch, sous vide weights.

Paul ordered one of these after seeing it on a cooking show, and I was so eye-rolly and grossed out about the whole thing. It seemed like a way to take something simple (baking a piece of meat) and make it super complicated; plus, it means cooking meat in a clear bin on the counter, which is gross. But I have been completely won over. I have cooked pork chops or chicken breasts in foil, in water, in literally in half an inch of oil to try to keep them from drying out in the oven, and the sous vide is SO MUCH BETTER than any other method I’ve tried. It is WEIRD, yes, but it makes VERY GOOD MEAT. I notice the difference particularly with drier meats such as pork chops and chicken breasts, but it also makes nice tender steak, even if you use a cheaper cut. You can also make YOGURT in it.

Also: Paul is a happy-go-lucky sort of person, and I don’t trust happy-go-lucky people to have enough anxiety to care about food safety, and the sous vide means that when he sets it for the Safe Meat Temperature, it always achieves the Safe Meat Temperature. I can look suspiciously at my piece of chicken, but then I remember that the sous vide cooked it, and I do trust the sous vide.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Hot Sauce Advent Calendar. It’s too early to put this in a post of tried-and-approved purchases, because it is not yet December so Paul has not yet tried a single hot sauce. Maybe they’re terrible! Who knows! But he was SO PLEASED to get it. I bought it impulsively and had it shipped addressed to him, so he opened it thinking it was something he’d ordered and was completely mystified, and then he spent like half an hour looking at it and being pleased with it, and he’s mentioned half a dozen time since then how much he’s looking forward to December 1st, so it’s already been well worth it. Another picture on the listing shows how cute it is when you open it up, with little numbered cardboard drawers to pull out:

(image from Amazon.com)

I’m planning to have him save the structure so I can re-use it to make another calendar for him for next year with assorted things in it—maybe some hot sauces, some chocolates, some little bottles of booze, etc.

 

My Amazon account tells me I have purchased this same fan five times and I am not surprised:

(image from Amazon.com)

Honeywell HT-900 Fan. I like to have a fan on me at night all summer, and this one is large enough to work from where it sits on a bureau across the room, but small enough (and with adjustable angle) so that I can direct it just on me and not on Paul, since Paul does NOT like to have a fan on him at night. It’s small enough to bring with me to a hotel, large enough to be worth bringing. The first one I bought has lasted me for YEARS, so I bought a second one for downstairs, then one for each of my older kids when they went to college, then one more as a back-up in case one of my fans ever breaks, so that I don’t have to go a single day without one.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

40-piece scrunchies. Elizabeth bought these with her own money and I was just CRINGING because I KNEW they would be disappointing: when Claire’s sells scrunchies for $4.99 each, you just CANNOT expect to get FORTY good scrunchies for under $10.00! You just can’t! I warned her! But they came, and they are great. There was one issue, which is mentioned in a lot of the reviews, which is that you don’t necessarily get the exact assortment of colors shown in the picture—so if you wanted one specific color shown, you might be disappointed. But Elizabeth wanted “an assortment” and didn’t care about the particular shades of colors, so she was really happy.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Vintage Rainbow Shirt. I love this shirt. It’s so soft and comfy and cute. I normally wear a women’s XL Tall in Old Navy sizes, for comparison, and I ordered this in a women’s XL and it is the right size—a little bit snugger than Old Navy XL Tall but the right fit for me (I have another shirt in this same brand in XXL, and it’s a little roomier than I’d like).

 

(image from Amazon.com)

These ridiculous little rainbow flower spoons. They’re too small to be sensible, but I love them so much every time I see them in the drawer, and every time I want to spoon sugar into coffee, and every time I use one to stir Edward’s powdered medicine into his little juice cup. They’re just so pretty and cute and charming. You could buy a set and put a couple into each of several stockings, keeping your two favorites for yourself.