My Christmas list--so far.

In my ongoing project of spreading sweetness and light through the internet, I've decided to share my Christmas and/or Birthday list. I printed this list up and distributed to the members of the Buxom household. My birthday is December 12th, and it is never too early to get the word out about What I Want.


1). Shower gel. Philosophy always has nice ones. I haven't smelled this particular flavor, but if spiced clementines smell like oranges stuck with cloves, you'd have difficulty getting me out of the shower.

2)  A new shower cap. To go with the new shower gel. One must do one's best to preserve one's do.

3) Colonial Candles. The eight inch classic tapers. White or cream or this gorgeous shade of red.

You can get them online.

 3) A new gym bag. My canvas boat and tote bags aren’t big enough, and the open tops are awkward. The REI Balance gym bag is narrow enough to fit in a locker, and has dedicated places to stash gym shoes, car keys--even a yoga mat. It's $59.00.

Here it is in Jungle, zipped up and tidy.

And in use. Would I actually do yoga if I had a place to put a yoga mat?

Who knows. But I might actually remember to pack a water bottle.

4) Big cream colored pillar candles for my TV-watching pleasure. I like the ones from that store on Elm Street … across from the park, a little west of the town parking lot? But if you're getting the tapers on line, you could get these from Colonial Candle.

 5) Flowers—red roses, poinsettias, Christmas-y arrangements—it’s all good!

6) Shearling-lined slippers with rubber soles. L. L. Bean Wicked Good moccasins are the classic. In the past, I've always gotten brown, but that was in the old days, when you could get Wicked Good slippers in any shade you wanted, as long as it was brown.

Now they come in a rainbow of shades! OK, six.

So how about a fashion-forward chocolate brown?

(And for anyone who objects that this blog is supposed to be about beauty, allow me to assure you that I am far more beautiful when my feet are cozy.)


7) Wool socks. Cable knit knee socks are available at Vermont Country Store.

Fancy ones can be had at Gorsuch.

See above remarks about cozy feet.

8) Clé de Peau Beauté Palette de Voyage for Holiday 2012. I've heard great things about their products but have only popped for a foundation. This palette has an eye quad, a sample-sized mascara, lipstick, cheek color, and eyebrow and eyeliner color. It's available at Neiman Marcus and costs a dazzling $180. But it's so cute!

9) From Hermes.com: L'Ivresse de l'Infini Silk twilly. It costs $140, which is a ridiculous price for a scrap of silk. But look at the colors!

10) If we're really reaching, Hermes “New Libris” Cashmere and silk stole with jacquard weave in comes in violet and costs a mind-boggling $860.00. But it's a jacquard weave, people. 

Talk about a pop of color!

10) Caviar. Beluga or Sevruga.

Or a jar of that La Prairie caviar eye cream her friend Audrey swears by--it's just as expensive. And Audrey's skin looks amazing, so there's that.

Also? Less fattening.

Quickly because it's time to gotoanotherconcert!!!11!!

The pre-Christmas craziness has struck. And I'm not talking about presents and cards and all that. That can actually wait.

I'm talking about all the extra activities. Specifically, concerts. Here's what we're looking at, off the top of my head:

Tonight is the middle school concert; tomorrow is my singing group's family and friends concert; Saturday isn't just my birthday,* it's also my son's Freshman vocal concert; Sunday is his Freshman orchestra; next Tuesday he's playing with the middle school orchestra as the grand old man of cello.

This is of course in addition to the usual choir rehearsals, voice lessons, cello lessons, cello choir, plus dress rehearsals OMG do we have the concert clothes ready? Blah blah blah BLAH.

It's enough to drive me to drink. Luckily, I like to drink, so there's plenty to choose from, and I had already factored in some drinking time, so I'm not actually wasting any valuable concert time.

* You know I had to slip that one in, right?

I was in mint condition, but now I'm melting ... melting

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week. I don't have any board meetings, rehearsals, or physical therapy. The house cleaners don't come. And now that grass cutting season is over, the lawn guys leave me alone, too.

What do I do on my favorite day of the week? Mostly I like to putter around--maybe do a few errands. Today I did so many--involving shopping for and then stringing Christmas lights all over my yard--that I became dangerously under-caffeinated. So at 5:00, after I dropped my son at his cello lesson, I decided to get myself some coffee.

I went to Caribou Coffee to get a seasonal latte. Something Christmas-y and festive. (After all, there should be some pay-off for the time I spent leaning out my porch windows stringing colored icicle lights along the window boxes.)

I picked the Mint Condition latte made with dark chocolate.

I didn't want to be ridiculously decadent, so I ordered the drink without the whipped cream. But then the barrista forgot and included it. I refused to let her throw out the drink and make me another. I'm earth friendly and green (and a cheap bastid) and anyway, what the hell, right? I usually drink my coffee with 2 percent milk and Splenda, and in the words of an advertisement so old it actually predates the internet: if I'm going to go blonde, I'm going blonde all the way.

Well. It was the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. Seriously. Coffee, milk, dark Guittard chocolate, mint flavoring ... even chopped Andes candy sprinkled on the whipped cream. This thing was an orgasm in a coffee cup. All it needed was some booze and it would be the perfect food.

Down towards the bottom of the cup, I started to wonder whether it was possible that I'd actually lost my appetite for dinner. I realize this sounds unlikely. But I felt strangely full. And my stomach hurt. In fact, I think my pancreas was hurting as well.

I staggered home to investigate and discovered that in the space of about five minutes, I had chugged a couple of candy bars. Maybe three. Because this


represents a whopping 590 calories. Or--in another way of looking at it--my dinner.

No wonder I tried to get my husband to cook. No wonder I didn't want to look at food. Or smell it. Or think about it.

On the bright side, with my 590 calories, I also got 11 grams of protein and 35 percent of my calcium for the day! Which means that when I keel over with a heart attack from chugging 41 grams of fat, I won't break a hip bone.

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 12

Here's your last chance to win a gift card! You remember what to do, right?

1. Look at the pictures.

2. Try to figure out what Christmas carol they represent. Today it's the carol's title.

3. Leave a comment with your brilliant solution. Or be all funny and sarcastic and forfeit the Starbucks gift card, even though you have a four-latte-a-day-habit, and I'm looking at you, Susie Sunshine.

4. If you're right, you win a $15 Starbucks gift card. (Or an iTunes gift card, if you think Starbucks coffee tastes burnt.)

5. Remember, the phrase probably includes little words--basic verbs, articles, pronouns, and prepositions--that produce pretty strange results in Google Images. After all, it's Deck THE halls WITH boughs OF holly, and when you do a search for the, with, and of, you come up with pretty random images.

So look for the nouns. Christmas carol-y nouns like angels, mangers, stars, nights, oxen, and asses.

7. OK! I'm done! And so is Christmas. Gloria in excelsis deo, not to mention alleluia.

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 11

OK, here we are at the second-to-last day of Christmas. Which means it's the second-to-last chance for you to enter my contest.

You remember what to do, right?

1. Look at the pictures.


2. Try to figure out what Christmas carol they represent. (Usually I show the first line of the first verse, i.e., "Silent night, holy night" because just "Silent Night" would be too short.)


3. Leave a comment with your well-reasoned and thoughtful solution. Or take the opportunity to make fun of me.


4. If you're right, you win a $15 Starbucks gift card. (Or iTunes, if you prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee--and who doesn't?)


5. And here's a hint, because honestly, the emails are getting to me.
   
   Most of the time, the phrase I'm using includes little words--basic verbs, articles, pronouns, and prepositions--that produce pretty strange results in Google Images. After all, it's THE first Noel and WE three kings OF orient ARE. And when you do a search for the, we, of, and are, you come up with pretty random images.
   
   So look for the nouns. Christmas carol-y nouns like angels, mangers, stars, nights, oxen, and asses.



6. Also, in today's contest, I repeated a preposition from one of my previous days. And Manet was not painting an angel.



7. OK, angels little birds. It's out of the manger nest with you.

Ready?

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 10

Hey internet! Sing along with Poppy!

"We're on the road to nowhere ..."

(Actually, at the moment, after 12 hours of driving, we're at a Hampton Inn outside of Cleveland, Ohio. So I have NO IDEA why I have that Talking Heads ear worm. Because we're not actually still on the road--and we won't be on the road again until tomorrow. Also, Ohio isn't nowhere. Or is it? Heh.)

But! I'm still giving away $15 Starbucks (or iTunes) gift cards. Because it's still Christmas. I say so, and so does tradition.

So here's what you do: look at the Google images, figure out which Christmas carol they illustrate, and leave your answer in a comment. The first person to get it right wins.

Have fun!

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 9

The contest continues! Here are the rules. It's a rebus made of Google images. Each image is one word. The words are either the first line of a Christmas carol OR its title--probably both.

Guess the first line and/or title and win your choice of a $15 Starbucks or iTunes gift card. (Which I'll be buying and sending when I'm no longer on the road. Because you can't see it from here, but I'm in Rhode Island. And any minute now I'll be getting in the car and driving to Chicago.)

And I felt all merciful, what with all the WHINING. So seriously, this one is child's play. And today it's the FIRST LINE because the title would be really short.

Ready? Here goes:

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 8

Happy New Year, internet!

We're driving to Boston to have lunch with my brother HENRY and then traveling to Rhode Island to visit my in-laws, so this is going to have to be fast.

Here's todays' contest: figure out which Christmas Carol is illustrated by the following uncredited Google images at the rate of one image per word. Leave a guess in a comment. The first person to guess right wins his or her choice of a $15 Starbucks or iTunes card.

Maybe it's my new year's resolution to be merciful and cut the internet some slack, but internet, I have heard your whining. So I've decided to make things a little bit easier for you. I've recycled an image from a previous day, and it's a repeated word, so it appears twice. So don't say I've never done anything for you. Even with your hangover, this shouldn't be all that hard.

Here goes:

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 7

It's snowing and I have to head out to Blockbuster's to get lots of DVDs so the Buxoms can ring in the New Year with our traditional New Year's Eve celebration: spaghetti carbonara washed down with lots of champagne, followed by a DVD-fest.

And so, without further ado, here is your seventh chance to win a $15 Starbucks or iTunes gift card by correctly identifying the first line of the Christmas carol illustrated below with Google Images.

Ready? Get to it.







And Happy New Year, internet.

12 Days of Blogmas, Day 6

On the sixth day of Christmas, your true Poppy gave to you ... another chance to win a $15 iTunes or Starbucks gift card by figuring out which carol is represented by these Googly images--where each image represents a word of the first line.






Good luck!