Hella Stella

My BH asked me what I would like for Christmas, and the answer turned out to be surprising.

I keep a list of potential gifts for him that is as long as my arm - I'm always coming across things he would love, and every time I do, I write it down. It's all about the lists with me. Without them, I would never remember anything.

I thought I had a similar list for myself. I told him as much: "Oh, I'm easy to shop for. I can send you a bunch of ideas if you want... I have lots of fun things bookmarked."

But when I went to send him this supposedly long list, I realized that I was completely wrong. All my bookmarks and wish lists, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc, were full of things for other people. Seriously, just STACKED with ideas for friends and family. I had the occasional cookbook marked for myself, or a print that I thought was special, but that only accounted for about 5% of my stash. It was a weird thing to realize.

I threw together a few ideas and sent them his way. There are always practical things I like... Books, a deep lasagna pan, silver earrings (I love me some silver earrings), a trip to the spa. Nowhere near the collection I thought I had, but that's okay. I would be thrilled if he made me dinner, with no need to spend money, but I know he's not going to settle for that.

In the meantime, I am having a blast getting his Christmas gifts together. He's the only person I go nuts for during the holidays, so I'll cut myself some slack... I'm pretty tame the rest of the year. And it's not even that I'm spending much money - I'm just excited because I know he'll really like his presents.

Next in my holiday planning: mincemeat pie. My mom made us a wreath out of the vines in her backyard, so we're getting there bit by bit.

What can I say? I love this time of year. After I cut mall shopping out of my Christmas routine, I started to ADORE the holidays. Now I have a low-stress, handmade-heavy, food-centric season to enjoy.

I'm pretty happy about it.

PS,

Not sure if I'll be able to update while I'm gigging in Toronto this weekend, so have a great couple of days! I'll see some of you at the show!