Holiday Musings on Eggnog

We got back last night from our Christmas break visiting Adam's family. We enjoyed delicious meals, wound up kids high on sugar and lots of chuckles including this reconstructed conversation about holiday adult beverages.

Adam: Are you serving punch at your holiday party? I hear it's the cool new thing.
Zara: People don't drink punch, they don't want all the extra calories. People drink vodka and the men want manly drinks.
Dad: [totally serious] ...manly drinks like eggnog?

Speaking of eggnog, I made a delicious Pannetone Eggnog Bread Pudding for Christmas breakfast. I added orange zest and a handful of extra raisins to pump up the flavor.

Eggnog Pannetone Bread Pudding

12 ounces day-old panettone bread, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
6 large eggs
2 cups eggnog
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest from 1 orange
1/4 cup raisins


Prep:
1. Cut up bread into cubes, place in 1 gallon freezer bag.
2. Whisk together all ingredients and pour over bread in freezer bag.
3. Let soak in fridge overnight.


Bake:
1. Butter a 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish or deep-dish pie plate. Pour bread custard mixture into dish and cover with foil.
2. Place foil-covered dish in a cold oven. Set oven at 350°F and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until pudding is puffed and golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes longer until middle is set and baked.
3. Enjoy.

Stopping at 50

Dear friends,

I've decided to just stop at 50 gift ideas this year. This gives me time to focus on my winter holiday related activities like eating desserts, cheering on Adam while he shovels snow, staying cozy in my house, tackling my own gift list and working on next year's recommendations.

plasticann

50. Vintage glass bowls

Fish & Eddy's is one of my favorite stores and last time I was in NYC, I stocked up on these vintage floral glass bowls. I was admiring them at MGDub's apartment so I marched over the next day to buy my own. They're very cute and make my bland looking leftovers appear cheerier.

49. My favorite pens ever

I love these Hi-Tec-C pens and I use them exclusively since they actually make work more fun and colorful. I recently tried the MUJI pens, but they're just not the same so I just ordered myself a fresh batch of Hi-Tec-Cs today. They come in fabulous colors and any pen addict will appreciate them as a gift.

48. Honey on Tap

Corinna and I stopped by "Follow the Honey," the cool new honey store in Harvard Square. They offer hundreds of different honeys from wild killer bee honey to volcanic Hawaiian honey, etc. You can taste the honeys before you buy, just ask at the counter. The coolest thing is you can buy honey from a tap in little mason jars and they offer a different honey very week. I bought a pint of a local Massachusetts honey from Deerfield for $7...poured it from the tap myself. Great store for offbeat gifts that are universally appealing. Kind of like showing up with a bottle of wine, but a little more interesting.

47. Give them their first author page

IlluStory kits are a great option for kids who love books because now they can write their own. Plus, you know they don't have this book already because they haven't written it yet. Perfection!

46. 2012 Snow and Graham Calendar

I've been loving my awesome accordion calendar from Snow and Graham at work this year. I find it hard to use the calendar on my computer when I'm working out the nitty gritty details so an adorable compact calendar makes planning a little easier. Snow and Graham offers a big variety of calendars featuring their awesome designs. They're all super cute, but I'm partial to the little one for a sweet stocking stuffer.

45. Hello Kitty on a Shelf

There's a brand new game that's all the rage here at the Zakun household. It's called "Hide the HK" around the house. It's actually super fun because I'm surprising bad at finding them. I blame it on my height because Adam hides them super high and I never seem to look high enough so it takes me days to find the HKs and usually Adam has to give me lots of hints. The latest genius hiding spot was above the lamp, it's been there a week. I guess it's kinda like that holiday hit from last year, "Elf on a shelf," but way cheaper because you can just wrap up some random action figure can call it "Green Lantern on a shelf." Cost: $0.

44. Twizzler Pens

I'm NOT a Twizzler fan. Having grown up on Red Vines, I think Twizzlers taste like plastic and have the mouth feel of wax. That said, I spotted these awesome Twizzler pens at one of my favorite stores, Black Ink, today and just had to put them on the gift list in honor of Halloween. Lots of my seemingly rational and sane friends love Twizzlers so I'm sure they'd get a kick out of this little gag gift.

43. Year of the bunny rabbit

2011 is the year of the rabbit which is actually the cutest of all zodiac animals. If you're looking for a baby gift for 2011 vintage baby, then check out the Rabbit Baby Spoon set from Beehive Kitchenware. They're engraved with the year on the back. Now, normally I would pooh pooh precious impractical collectibles, but I think these might actually be sort of practical. Adam got me the Blossom Measuring Spoons last year and I love them. They have a nice heft to them and they're definitely calibrated accurately measurement wise. After baby grows up, parents could always just re-purpose them as little servings spoons for things like olives and mustard. See, very practical, a lifetime of many uses.

42. A little Flour at home

It's cold and rainy in Boston this weekend so I stayed home and baked some Apple Snacking Cake from the Flour Bakery cookbook. Flour is one of my favorite places in Boston, so much so that Adam and I actually walked a 14 mile loop in August to hit all three Flour bakeries on foot in one day. It was divine, but a little tiring. If you've got a friend who loves to bake, this cookbook is really fun because it has wonderful photos and the desserts are delicious. It was my cookbook gift of 2010.

41. Cozy Flower Hat from GiantDwarf

I woke up to 34 degree weather this morning so I brought out my snuggly hat to keep my noggin warm. The season for hat hair is officially here, but you can look cute and stylish nonetheless. GiantDwarf offers adorable handcrafted wool hats decorated with awesome felt flowers. They come in a huge variety of colors so they're all unique.

40. Biscoff cookies dipped in Biscoff spread

This fall, I've been slightly obsessed with Biscoff spread, a delicious sweet spread made from Biscoff cookies. Yummy with fluff, bananas, apples, ice cream and even with [wait for it] Biscoff cookies. Instead of a candle or a bottle of wine, bring some Biscoff spread as a little gift for the host of your next holiday party. You can get it at the grocery store and it'll set you back less than 5 bucks. Stock up and you won't be scrambling for a last minute gift or late night snack attack.

39. Charming play food

When I was a child I loved playing with my pretend kitchen and food. Now that I'm grown, toy food still makes me super happy because it brings fond memories of childhood. Melissa and Doug offer tons of cool wooden food kits from sushi to ice cream sundaes to cakes and pizzas. I also love the HABA line of plush play food like these adorable petite fours.

38. If I had a million dollars...I'd buy a couple of shirts

Threadless teamed up with UNICEF with a line of shirts. You buy the shirt that has an image of what you're donating to UNICEF.

If I had a million bucks, I'd get the following shirts. 1 "Cargo Flight" ($300K), say 5 "100 metric tons of soy blend" ($375K), 100 "Water Pumps" ($50K), 5000 units of "Deworming Tablets" ($181K) and 30 "Motor Bikes" to round out my cool million. That probably buys me about 5136 shirts, most of them with worms on them, but still it's for a good cause.

In all seriousness, this is a pretty cool gift for someone who has everything. Make a donation to UNICEF and they get a fun t-shirt to boot. It's kinda like when you buy little chicks through World Vision except you get a cool shirt rather than a postcard of chicks. Chicks...also a good gift, but no shirt.

37. Letterpress your stationary to your liking

Paper Monkey Press is my go place for inexpensive letterpress stationary. You get 10 characters to work with so let your imagination go wild. Slap your name on some stationary for a more traditional approach. Be creative and customize with your favorite greeting. As long as it fits in 10 characters including spaces, they'll help you out. I recently ordered some custom birthday and baby cards since I'm always running out to buy them. Soon I'll have a go to stash then I can sit back and enjoy all the time and money I've saved NOT having to shop for a card at the last minute.

36. A-Z! Got 26 thirsty friends coming over at the same time? 

If you've got furniture worth protecting, friends who are thirsty and twenty-six of them coming over at the same time, grab a set of these A-Z coasters. They look pretty cool and you could simultaneously teach your kids the ABCs. I have no occasion to buy them myself as I already have a lot of coasters, fewer than twenty-six friends and no children to teach ABCs to.

35. Giant Scrabble Tiles

Continuing with the alphabet theme, gift idea thirty-five is GIANT Scrabble Tiles from 15 Tangerines on Etsy. Instead of traditional wooden baby blocks, spell out a kid's name with Scrabble letters and hang them up.Have a large space to fill? Hang a big Scrabble crossword on your wall. The possibilities are endless!

34. Vintage Alphabet Blocks

I love the Uncle Goose line of alphabet blocks for their vintage-y look and feel. Beside the English blocks, they make French, Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, and even Greek so your kids can super prepared for Greek life in college. My absolute favorite are the English lowercase blocks that feature baby animals. Who knew a baby owl is called an "owlet?"

P.S. I once failed miserably at a baby shower game because I had no idea what the "baby" versions of all these animals were officially called. I felt kinda dumb and just wrote "baby" in front of everything. I sure wish I'd had these lowercase blocks to help me cram for that party so I could have nailed that quiz like I did for celebrity couple pairings. 

33. Suri Cruise could use some of these Solemates

Full disclosure, I have never tried this product and I don't wear high heels. In fact, Suri Cruise wears higher heels than I do and she's like four. One of the few times I wore heels, I caught my shoe in a metal grate and completely mangled the heel. Then I completely sank into someone's lawn another time so I just decided to just give up, but for those brave souls out there, these Solemates look kinda nifty. Might be a swell gift for that high heel loving gal who actually has to walk or stand in her heels.

32. Five Pounder

Got a friend who loves the bears, centipedes, cherries and the colas? Buy them a five pound (4.8 pound) bag of high quality Haribo gummies. A little excessive, but you know they probably won't buy it for themselves so it's a treat and a bargain at $14.77 with free shipping at Amazon. I personally like the letters because they're the most educational.

31. Top Pot Deliciousness at Home

A few years ago, we spent the summer living in Seattle when we discovered Top Pot Doughnuts. I've already blogged about Top Pot a few times in the past, but now they have their own cookbook. We can now [in theory] make their doughnuts at home. Perfect gift for that friend who enjoys highly involved projects and hobbies. Examples include woodworking, beer making, canning, etc.

30. Start your own countdown to the countdown

I like the idea of Advent calendars, but it's really hard to find a good one. They have the chocolate ones for three bucks, but the chocolate is dissatisfying and I don't want to feel obligated to eat bad chocolate just because it's in the calendar. I'm still hunting for a quality chocolate calendar, but I find some awesome non-food related non-perishable Advent calendars from Chronicle books available on Amazon. Some are pop up to boot.

1. Dream Snow pop up calendar
2. Olive the other reindeer pop up calendar
3. Spookier Winter's Night pop up calendar

29. Fun-ky jewelry for kidlets

Zess celebrated her eighth birthday this week so we got her some necklaces as a gift. It was a challenge shopping for kid's jewelry because the options seem to be either super tacky plastic or expensive heirloom quality sterling silver. I actually scoured the mall for ideas one day and came up empty so I reached out to the folks at Jojo Loves You, one of my favorite local jewelry lines, for some help. They were happy to shorten their regular necklaces so they'd work for a kid, I just had to note it in the online order. They also had some fun options that were more kid appropriate like this heart shaped charm necklace we got Zess. I hope she liked her present!!!

28. Member's Only...

No, I didn't mean the 80s jacket trend. Joked! I mean a gift membership to a local museum because I love that Boston has lots of awesome museums like the MFA , but I never actually go to museums. A gift membership to a friend's favorite museum provides year round access so they can pop in and out whenever, go to the head of the line and plus it's a nice way to support your local cultural institutions.

27. Be prepared with a box of all purpose cards

I watched a lot of I Love Lucy growing up and one of my favorite episodes is when Ricky thinks he's forgotten Lucy's birthday. He rushes to his closet and pulls out his emergency box of chocolates and he has a stash of cards for any occasion: Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, I'm Sorry, etc. Give your friends a box of cards so they too can be prepared like Ricky.

• Truly "All Purpose" letterpress card on Etsy
• Box of emergency cards from Bob's Your Uncle
• Classy and witty box of all purpose cards from Kate Spade. Corinna got me these for my birthday last week and I feel ultra prepared.

26. A dozen ice cream scoops

My whole thing about how you can never have too many trays sort of extends to my feeling about ice cream scoops. While giving someone a dozen ice cream scoops might be a little extreme, gifting an extra scoop will be a welcome and unexpected treat. My quality of life has vastly improved with the purchase of a second ice cream scoop at home. We've been having way more fun (and eating way more ice cream) ever since a group of us pooled a few bucks to buy an office ice cream scoop, a worthwhile capital expenditure we'll amortize for at least 24 months. I'm a big fan of these Zyliss ice cream scoops, they come in lots of fun colors and they scoop through hard ice cream like a breeze. Next time you're heading to a party, bring your hosts some ice cream and a great scoop they'll use for years to come. I know I could really use a third scoop myself.

25. See this sea bag made with recycled sails from the sea?

I was thinking of these wonderful Sea Bags this weekend because the weather has been unseasonably gorgeous. Warm 80 degree sunny days with no chance of rain. Feels like that last hurrah before fall and winter really set in. I don't personally own a Sea Bag, but I've admired them from afar and up close at the Sea Bag store in Portland and Freeport, Maine. They have lots of great designs and they'll even create a custom bag for you. It's a little pricey, but might fit the bill for an unique gift.

P.S. If you're someone who happens to have old sails, they'll trade you sails for bags.

24. Adorably anthropomorphic desserts

I got these super adorable yummy dessert keychain/zipper pulls from kidrobot as a party favor for my girl birthday dinner guests last week. They come sealed in a "blindbox" so you don't know which dessert you'll get until you open it up. I got a chocolate bundt cake with frosting, plasticmom got the jello mold, Zristen got the chocolate dipped strawberry, Wheezy got the key lime pie and I totally can't remember what Corinna got, but it was cute too. I'm using my bundt cake as a zipper pull for my purse and I'm a little obsessed with how cute it is. It was super fun opening up our little blindbox surprises and checking out what everyone else got. No one traded with each other, I think everyone liked what they got or maybe they were just too mature for playground horsetrading.

Audience: kids and adults alike as long as they're fun loving and don't take themselves too seriously
Benefit: huge variety of blind box themes from Simpsons to South Park to Hello Kitty to Marvel to Unicorns to Yummy Desserts. No need to gift wrap since the surprise is inside the box, easy to purchase a bunch for friends without having to spend time picking and choosing.

23. Change up your look with funny mustaches

Adam's winter beard keeps him warm and it also makes him look a little older to boot. For those of us who can't grow facial hair (kids and women), there's always finger mustache tattoos to mix things up. Won't keep you warm, but will get you some laughs. I think kids would definitely get a kick out of this stocking stuffer.