1 day to Christmas: You're kinda in a bind unless you're celebrating Orthodox Christmas

At this point, it's 24 hours to Christmas and you probably want to avoid the mall because it'll be crazy busy and possibly crazy depressing. I'm going to make some last minute suggestions for your local 24 hour drugstore without resorting to the gift card rack.

Band Aids: 

Last time I checked, little kids love Band Aids. It's like crack to kids, but the safer crack since it's marginally less destructive than than actual crack for kids aka refined sugar. Stop by the Band Aid aisle and buy at least 5 boxes of cute themed Band Aids, 10 boxes if your budget permits. Get the premium branded cute stuff, don't skimp out on generic plain Band Aids. It's Christmas, don't be a grinch. Wrap them up and let them rip it all open on Christmas morning. It's the gift that might not last long and it's the gift that parents might not like very much, but it'll provide about 5 minutes of pure joy and quite a bit of trash.

Themed sets of magazines:

Stop by the magazine aisle and top like twenty bucks on a pile of magazines geared toward someone's interest or guilty pleasure. If you want to fake it, buy a hard copy of a magazine and then sneak online and buy them a subscription that will come in a few weeks.

Decor and Home Stuff: 

• House Beautiful
• Dwell
• Elle Decor

Trashy Stuff - buy a couple for multiple sources of Kim Kardashian's latest adventures:

• US
• Star
• National Enquirer
• People…to keep it a little respectable

Food Stuff:

• Bon Appetite
• Food & Wine
• Gourmet
• Food Network

You get the idea…just buy a bunch of stuff in the same category for the illusion of thoughtfulness

As Seen on TV:

I've noticed that my local CVS has a section of goofy Christmas gifts that are mostly as seen on TV type gifts. If you're gonna go this route, I recommend you totally own the gift by playing up the campiness and being over the top. Avoid "practicality, "usefulness" and "good taste" at all costs since most gifts from this drugstore aisle will not qualify. Get them something that they'd never buy themselves, something they might secretly want, but are too embarrassed. Think butter butlers, chia pets, chocolate fountains, lava lamps, etc.

Merry Christmas! Best of luck at the local drugstore if you're headed there to shop…you're gonna need it in more ways than one.

When parents stop being polite and start getting real

It goes without saying that plasticmom is just the best. She's endearing, very sweet, hilarious and incredibly nice. You know how older people sometimes speak their mind and stop caring so much about being polite or saying the right thing? I think plasticmom might be tipping into that and I'm going to start finding out what she really thinks. It's gonna be good!

Scene: plasticann is sorting through old photographs

plasticann: [looking at a high school photo] I think I'm going to have to shred this one.

plasticmom: No no, let me see it first.

plasticann: [holds photo for plasticmom to see] What do you think?

plasticmom: [Wincing with a look of mild horror grabs the photo] AGHHHHHH! The pimples, the braces, the hair, ughhhhhh! Is that really you? Maybe you should shred it.

plasticann: [laughing] MOM, that's the wrong thing to say. Here's another one from high school. You ready?

plastimom: [bracing herself] That's not you? That's your friend. 

plasticann: That's me!

plasticmom: I don't believe it. That's not you. Why is this shirt so loose, what's this weird dress?

plasticann: That's my shirt and my dress. I remember buying it and I really liked it.

plasticmom: I still don't believe it.

Key takeaways:

• plastimom is horrified by my class photo, the one day I made some sort of effort regarding my appearance. I'm with her, I too feel mortified in retrospect. Fortunately, I was blissfully unaware during my "awkward years."
• plasticmom can't recognize me from a photo and still insists it's not me.
• plasticmom was gracious enough or blind enough to think I was "adorable"during these awkward years, but she's clearly mildly horrified looking back. Ignorance is bliss.
• plasticmom continues to make me laugh so hard my sides hurt.

Dear Diary…1988

"Going through my stuff" at plasticmom's is always an interesting and often hilarious trip down memory lane. I unearthed a Peanuts diary that said "KEEP OUT!" complete with a combination lock. I wasn't even going to bother opening up the diary since I couldn't remember the combination, but plasticmom persisted for about 30 seconds and the contents were revealed. Tah dah!

The only thing "juicy" about this diary is the amount of orange juice we were all drinking according to my meticulous record of our 5th grade snacks. There are only two entries on one page, both for November 1988 so I must have lost the combination for the lock real quick. 

• I could totally picture myself writing a very similar entry in a diary today. I would like to think my snack records would be more refined, but I'm pretty sure I've actually made note in a journal about enjoying "Cheetos with orange juice" at some point in the last 12 months.
• I've always been food obsessed. What everyone brought for snack was clearly the highlight of the day. Maybe the big secret I was keeping locked up in my diary was that I was more interested in snack than school. Scandalous!
• This kid Nobu might have been a hobbit who enjoyed multiple snacks. First some orange juice and then some Cracker Jacks for elevensies. Now that I think about it, I remember he had these awesome Teddy Grahams for snack one day and I was jealous. 
• How come I'm eating an apple while my friends are chomping on fruit roll ups, corn chips Frito to be exact, chips, Cracker Jacks and Cheetos. Most disturbing is, why am I "eating nothing" for snack on November 23, 1988. I'm gonna have to ask plasticmom some tough questions.

The only person I'm still Facebook friends with is a girl named Michelle. I wonder if she's feeding her adorable kids "Fritos corn chips" and "Cheetos?"

Postscript: Both plasticmom and Adam were befuddled. They both asked "why would you write about snacks in your diary?"

1 Week to Christmas: Backup Gifts

Figuring out a "thoughtful" gift for someone you don't really know well is really challenging so I get really excited when I find universally appealing gifts. I think these two gift ideas should adequately cover your gift giving needs for most older kids and adults you don't know well for under $15 that's a little more unusual than a liquor [for the adults] or gift cards.

PocketMonkey Tool - $12

I've come back to this PocketMonkey gift of a workhorse again and again this year. It was created by a friend of a friend so I can play up the "ZIT" connection and the "created in Somerville" aspect. It's not yet widely available so it's still a novelty and broadly appeals to most people age 8+. It's also super compact and TSA compliant so you can carry it on planes. When I traveled this summer, I brought five PocketMonkey tools to give away as gifts to relatives I had never met and they went like hotcakes. plasticmom emailed me this week, "I need 5 monkey tool cards for Taipei gifts" because "everyone wants one when they see it." The only small challenge is finding them, but fortunately EMS carries them in Boston and you can check store availability and reserve them online which is how I acquired 10 more "monkey tool cards" for plasticmom.

Pilot Hi-Tec C Maica Pen Set - $15

I am obsessed with these Hi-Tec C pens from Japan, but that's not exactly news. I use those pens almost exclusively because they write very smoothly and the colors are really lovely. I seek them out when I travel in Asia and I possessively hoard my pens. If you "borrow" a Hi-Tec C pen, you can be confident I will ask for it back even if the next time I see you is not for a long while. My friend Zara ran out [virtually] to JetPens.com to buy herself a set after she tried my pen. The newest version of the pen is called the Maica so it looks a little different, but the reviewers on JetPens really like it. I usually buy them from JetPens, but I see that even Amazon sells them and will Prime ship them to boot.

2 Weeks to Christmas: I really wish I were kid...

Ice Cream Truck from OTO Toys

When I saw this beautiful cardboard ice cream truck toy, I was smitten. It's adorable! I want it, but I need this cardboard ice cream truck as much as I need an ridiculously expensive handbag. I can probably semi justify the handbag more easily. Someone I know, please buy this for your child so I can come visit and play.

Uncle Goose Blocks

I'm also obsessed with all shapes (just cubic) and sizes of Uncle Goose blocks. I bought a set of lower case blocks for Zristen's baby shower as decorations and I really really wanted to keep them for myself.

The classic upper case ABC and lower case abc blocks are great. The lower case abc blocks are a little unusual, they feature baby versions of animals on the blocks. They also have foreign language blocks for smart multiethnic babies. I bought the Arabic set for a friend who's Moroccan Moving beyond the letter blocks, you'll find awesome blocks with periodic tables, USA blocks and Presidential blocks. If you want to get all high design and buy me gift, they have Eames House blocks, House Industry Font Alphabet blocks, Christmas Tree blocks and so much more.

3 Weeks to Christmas: Game Night

As a child, Adam dreamed of family game nights which rarely came to fruition either due to lack of interest or initiative. These days, Adam hosts a monthly game night that's now a "thing" after a year of persistently having fun. It's a potluck game night so you bring games and snacks to share. It's also been fun to learn about new games that would also make cool gifts. Here's the round up of new discoveries and old favorites thanks to adventurous game playing friends.

King of Toyko

You might not realize by looking at him, but Adam is really into super heroes, zombies and monsters. Our friends Zrian and Zbigail introduced us to King of Tokyo, a game pitting imaginary monsters with even more imaginary powers in an epic battle set in pretty much an imaginary Tokyo. Let me assure you that there's nothing culturally educational about this game. You will learn nothing about actual Tokyo, but it's fun nonetheless. Adam loved King of Tokyo so much, he promptly ordered his own set the next week so he could bring it his new toy to someone else's house. I've come to enjoy it myself and I especially like to make sound effects like, "whack whack" when my monster takes a "whack."

Ticket to Ride

I love this train building game because it's a perfect fit for my personality and it's right in my sweet spot. It's even sorta educational and it's definitely a ton of fun. We have the American version, but there's also an European version. I look forward to playing it every game night without fail.

I'm an ISTJ and if you're not familiar with Myers Briggs, let me break it down for you within a Ticket to Ride context.

Introvert: There's no trading and negotiating in this game which is perfect if you want to hang out with people, but maybe don't want to be chatty the entire time. Everyone has their own agenda, there's almost no cooperation and minimal interaction. I almost feel energized after a game of Ticket to Ride.

Sensing: Collecting train cards, building trains, building routes is all super tangible and detailed oriented. I love it!

Thinking: Successfully building a train route from LA to NYC requires a lot of forethought, deliberate planning and lots of opportunities to use the old noggin…quietly with little interaction.

Judgement: First step of this game is to decide which train routes you're going to build. Yipee! I know where I'm going and I have a tangible goal. I can measure my goal when I reach it and check it off my list.

Oh man, I really want to play Ticket to Ride now. Maybe I can persuade Adam to play with me.

Powder Room Updates

It's been a few months since we painted and updated our first floor powder room, but I haven't posted any photos because the bathroom is small enough that it's challenging to take photos. It measures about 30 inches by 60 inches which as teeny as it can be while still being comfortable. I've seen teenier bathrooms that are extremely uncomfortable and fortunately our's is big enough to be functional.

The "before" of this small bathroom was pretty unremarkable. Functional, clean and pretty comfortable. Plain white walls that eventually started peeling, extremely dim, generic white cabinet over the toilet and a plain mirror I picked up on a whim at Target the weekend we moved in.

The "after" features a few updates:

• Extra sparkly lighting with a disco ball pendant lamp from PBTeen
• Taller mirror from West Elm
• Purple walls Benjamin Moore North Cascades
• Removed white cabinet and installed clear shelf from CB2
• Collection of six maps of significance from various Etsy stores online

Disco ball light from PBTeen

Mirror from West Elm

Etsy Maps

Providence, RI, Boston

Seattle, San Francisco

Los Angeles, Taipei

"Floating" clear shelf from CB2