Friday I'm in Love

So our $10 Christmas is a fine idea and all, but after shipping? $60. And that's using $15 of coupons, too. Oh well. But in all seriousness, I'm thrilled about how the gifts have turned out and will reveal all after the holidays. I was thinking after handing over my debit card with a sigh, though, that one day I would so love to be able to pack the car full of prettily packaged gifts and simply drive over to Mimi and Jambo's for Christmas. (Mimi and Jambo are the names the first grandchild bestowed on my parents, so they now wear them proudly.) I say this with a huge amount of trepidation and fear of jinxing, but I can't contain it: we got a glimmer of hope yesterday that such a feat might one day be possible! Like, Christmas 2010 possible. A girl can dream, can't she?

In honor of Project: Next Big Step shaping up nicely, I offer a Friday I'm in Love bonanza, a slew of items that amused me this week while waiting for the H-word to get back into town. We're doing an ittybitty Christmas for each other this year, by the way, in honor of what we most want wrapped under the proverbial tree: a big, shiny job. So there's lots of time to play around on the Web and hand-craft "$10" gifts.

Ahhh... one week 'til Christmas Day! Mimi and Jambo and the Nug and Nugget and oh yeah, my crazy-awesome sibs and their SOs, too. It's going to be a good one, folks... Now it's your turn to smile at these gems:

The Best Worst Sandra Lee Recipe Reviews

As you can see from my tweet last night, I had quite a bit of fun with "The Best Worst Sandra Lee Recipe Reviews." Seriously, you must check it out. It contains reviews such as "It was like there was a party in my mouth and everyone was throwing up" and "I must admit I would never have thought of serving fish with allspice and taco seasoning and salsa and cole slaw and peaches. But there’s a good reason for that: this is disgusting." So good! I love the Food Network Humor blog, by the way. If you're a food-tv cynic like me, go check them out. And don't even get me started on Sandra Lee, whom the always-crushworthy Anthony Bourdain terms the "frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker." The woman even ruined Andrew Cuomo for me.

Smell of Books spray

So as you either already know or likely suspect, I am hopelessly old-school when it comes to paper. I read a paper newspaper every day. I love stationery and use snail mail. But most of all, I love books. I fear the day someone tries to gift me with a Kindle and my head explodes. At any rate, for you new-fangled folks who embrace technology but miss that smell of paper, even if your cold heartless hands prefer to hold electronics, this spray is for you! From Incredible Things.

City Sage Christmas Card

THIS is how you send out a photo card pre-adorable kids, folks. Blogger crush Anne Sage and her husband's fantastic tacky sweater/cat people parody is etched into my Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously Hall of Fame. Amazing!

Brussels Sprouts Christmas Tree

My favorite vegetable, all decorated for the holidays. Genius!

Kathleen Turner as Molly Ivins

One of my all-time favorite women, the late, great Molly Ivins, is being brought back to us in the form of Kathleen Turner, who's channeling Ivins in a one-woman show in Philadelphia this spring. My love for Molly runs deep and blue, and I'd see this show in a heartbeat. Philadelphia is a town that makes our household smile: T was born there and I spent a summer there as a teenager studying at Penn, meeting lifelong friends and getting into all sorts of trouble. I think a trip is in order in a few months, when all these Next Big Thing details are ironed out. Sending you love, Molly, as always.


One week 'till lounging in pajamas with the fam all day, woo hoo!