My Favorite Gifts to Give & Receive
...plus an update on a very special family weekend & an idea for your year-end giving
Happy Wednesday—happy December! Happy all the things!
We’re just back from a long weekend in Texas, celebrating an early Christmas with Aaron’s family as well as a very special 50th wedding anniversary celebration for my in-laws.
I landed in an absolute deluge of hard rain that continued for the first two days there, and my sister-in-law picked me up from the airport with the most thoughtful gift: a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos—my current favorite snack, having just rediscovered them upstate over Thanksgiving weekend :)
We celebrated Christmas with games and gift exchanges, kids tearing around the living room through a sea of wrapping paper and ribbons. For a special Christmas treat the kids wanted donuts, of course, so I was introduced to Shipley’s—the raised donuts and kolaches are both fantastic, especially the spicy jalepeno kolaches.
For my in-laws’ anniversary celebration, we set up an elaborate uncles/grandchildren/Nana & Papa adventure to get them out of the house for the afternoon so that we could decorate the house like a fancy restaurant—all black, white and gold, tons of balloons and sparkles and flowers. When they arrived back at the house, we surprised them with a family photo shoot—miraculously, all the kids dressed in fancy black/white/gold, too, and then a meal served by their grandchildren. My brother-in-law grilled picanha steaks in the Brazilian steakhouse style, and they were excellent.
After dinner, a cake-cutting (Costco sheet cake forever!) and first dance just like a wedding reception, and then an epic dance and karaoke party—highlights include my three boys doing a very good Beastie Boys tribute, one sister-in-law doing the 4 Non-Blondes classic “What’s Up” (I’ve been requesting that song from her for more than 20 years!), and another sister-in-law doing a fantastic version of Popular from Wicked.
Other highlight moments: a boat ride out on Galveston Bay—almost nothing brings me more joy than being out on the water. My brother-in-law has a jam room full of guitars and amps and a full drum kit, so our boys spent about 20 hours a day jamming with the uncles and Papa—everything from Beatles and James Taylor to Rage Against the Machine. (William in particular was in heaven—I thought we’d have to leave him there forever!) We went to see the Taylor Swift movie, which was so fun, and my niece and I did a thorough Takis taste test…we concluded that we like Extreme much better than Blue Heat—although the Blue Heat ones dye your mouth very entertainingly.
It was a great way to begin the holiday season—lots of family time and thoughtful gifts and old stories and family jokes, and now we’re back in the city just in time to get a tree and start reading the Advent Book—our favorite family tradition. I’ll start our first batch of raisin bread this week, and we have cookie parties and baking days, holiday cocktail parties and all sorts of fun things planned this month.
Between a busy Thanksgiving and an upstate weekend, and then a long weekend in Texas, I will admit to you I’m a little behind on my Christmas shopping, but I’m hoping to gain back some ground this week.
If you find yourself in the same position, here’s a little gift guide—these are both things I love having and using in our home and also things I love to give…I hope they make your shopping a little easier!
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