ilubmoney

For Bay Area peoples:

Do any of you happen to know where I can buy a sprig of mistletoe around here? Fake is okay, but I'd prefer to get a real one. I've checked a couple of local florists online (no luck) and thought I'd ask you guys before I check for the fake ones.

I'm worried I won't have enough time for this, but I'm going to attempt it anyway.

I can't really afford Christmas gifts this year. So I'm limiting gifts to family only this year. My gifts to them?

Comic strips chronicling my favorite memories of each of them.

And if I have time, I'll do one for MF, too. But this is no easy feat to have it done by Christmas, because I have 6 siblings. My parents'll share one set, unless I end up thinking of two good memories of each. Jenny's will be the easiest one to do because I write about her often in my LJ. The others, not so much, but I think I'll be able to do it with some good planning.

If I can pull it off well, I'll scan them and post them before I have them framed and wrapped. :)

Edit: Ahh, I don't think I can do this quickly enough! Work has piled on for the next two weeks. On the plus side, this means that I may be able to afford some gifts this year instead of making them. BUT HOW TO FIND TIME TO SHOP? The answer's probably to stop blogging.

Has anyone had any experience with Amazingclubs? They have some interesting "of the month" subscriptions that I may want to use at some point in the future for gift-giving, but it seems a bit pricey and I'd want to make sure that it lived up to expectations before I paid money for it.

Poll #1100028 Favorite fruit jam?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

What's your favorite fruit jam?

Last year, I was strapped for cash, so I made chocolate-covered cherry cookies to pass out as gifts.

This year, I'm equally strapped for cash, so I'm making baked goods again this year. I recently had a Costco muffin that was amazing (I think it was some kind of crumb muffin?) and inspired the idea of passing out bigger baked goods.

So I'll be making mini-bread loaves or muffins to pass out this year, but I've never made either before. So I'm posting today for recommendations. If you've got recipes to share in the comments, that would be even better. But for now...



Poll #1095682 Christmas baked goods!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

What mini-bread or muffin do you find especially delicious (holiday theme not required)?

Wondering what to get your girlfriend/wife for Valentine's Day? If she has an iPod, here's an idea. ;) (Link NSFW. Kinda.)

(It's even $69. How appropriate!)

Chocolate covered cherry cookies, YOU ARE MINE.

(If these turn out successfully, I know what I'm giving people for Christmas this year!)

I brought Jenny along with me to get ingredients for the cookies. I had just bought the Beatles' Love CD yesterday evening, so that was playing in the car.

Jenny said, "Let's hear another song." So I changed to the next track. "Another one!" So I changed it again. We continued this way until "Eleanor Rigby" came on.

"This song is funny!" she exclaimed. "Leave it on this one!"

I'm pretty surprised she likes this song considering how much she likes pop music, and "Eleanor Rigby" is decidedly not pop.

The next song that came on was "I am the Walrus." She liked this one, too, and she'd break into petals of laughter whenever they sang, "Koo-koo ka-choo."


...

I just had one of the cookies. They're good, but not as good as the ones that Jack's mom made. While the flavor was similar, mine ended up crunchier than desired. Once I adjust the recipe for chewier cookies, it'll be fit for gifting. :D

A few days ago, I learned that dementia and her daughter will attempt to fulfill wishes on holiday_wishes everyday until Christmas. Their big hearts have inspired me to fulfill a few of them of my own, mostly the ones that don't cost any money (though I did make one small donation... I won't say to whom or what).

My focus on wish-granting today was for those tagged under "significant others." tribute_mutant asked for gift ideas for her boyfriend, so I happily obliged with this idea. I'm sharing it here for fellow LJers who could pull it off.

I don't think I mentioned it here before, but for our one-year anniversary, I compiled all my LJ entries about MF and selected our happiest memories together. I handwrote them in a lovely notebook (and changed pens/handwriting to make it look like I wrote each entry on a different day) and was able to fill most of the notebook. I wrote a love letter at the end.

When our one-year anniversary came around, I gave him many other gifts from China but kept the notebook. There were a number of reasons why. Partly, it was because it felt unfinished. It was supposed to chronicle our first year together, but a good chunk of that was while we were on different sides of the world, so the book was shorter than it could have been. Mostly, it was because I was a little selfish and wanted to keep the book for myself. Whenever I really missed him, I would open the book and read a few pages, reliving the happy moments again. I still do that sometimes. I told him about the book the night before I left Syracuse, and he wanted to see it, but the book was in LA. Didn't bring it with me to the East Coast... didn't need it.* I was making new happy memories in New York with him.

I added another entry to the notebook after the love letter and will probably add a few more later on. The notebook could plausibly be full by the time Christmas comes around, so I will give it to him then.

The reason why I said "for LJers who could pull it off," I think the reason why this works is because he doesn't read my LJ. So I have over a year's worth of private/public/filtered entries about him which he's never read before.

Perhaps next year, I will do what welfy did for soopageek and create a fancy scrapbook. But it doesn't sound like those come cheap at all. Also, it requires tons of photos of us. I'll probably have to get a camera soon so I can start collecting for a year's worth of photos. :)

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* You could argue that I don't really need the book anyway since they're based on LJ entries, and I could access them as long as I have a computer and internet connection. But it's not the same, people!

I'm gonna make these cookies for my students and coworkers at the tutoring center this holiday season.  It's too cool to be behind an LJ-cut.



The colored, "glassy" part is made of melted hard candies (probably gonna use some crushed LifeSaver or Jolly Rancher candy).  They're way pretty, but I'm sort of wondering if it'd be a bad idea to give to kids since it might be like eating shards.  Maybe I should just give them away as decorations instead of cookies. 

I'll also need some cookie cutters.  Thinking yellow stars, red hearts, blue snowflakes, and green... christmas trees?  It's gonna be a pretty big project, but I'll probably recruit some friends or family members to help me.  If any of you know where I can buy some cheap but decent cutters, comment.

If you'd like to make these yourself, a link to a recipe is here.