maybe my heart will grow three sizes—but I’d settle for two

I recently discovered that Etsy has “member-curated galleries” of nifty crafty goods. Ordinarily this would strike me as a suspicious marketing gimmick—I mean, do we know for sure that these “members” aren’t Etsy employees or at least Etsy vendors?—but for some reason I’m into it. Maybe because if you do a search for “wallet,” you get 43,671 results, and it’s hard to sift through wallets made out of duct tape and wallets that are actually clutch purses (not the same!) to find one you like.

I’ll probably do a little holiday shopping on Etsy this year, and also at All Saints’ annual Alternative Christmas Market, though sometimes I wonder if the people on my list get genuinely excited when someone in Ethiopia gets a chicken in their name. I mean, I would. So if you’re shopping for me, take note. I haven’t forgotten about my old friends, books, either. Bronwyn over at GuerrillaReads has some suggestions for where/how to buy sustainable, recyclable, indie-made reading material.

I pouted my way through Halloween and Thanksgiving*, but I’m going to try not to do the same with Christmas and New Year’s. First, because I’m sick of my own bad attitude. I’m boring myself. Second, because I think AK is sick of my bad attitude. She hasn’t said so in so many words, but it’s inevitable. She’s always a little bummed that we stay in town for the holidays while so many of our friends leave, and no matter how much they assure her that these trips involve getting fondled in the long security lines at LAX and seeing relatives they hate, I think AK sort of imagines them all hanging out with each other on a tropical island. In other words, the last thing she needs is me grinching things up.

So that’s my December resolution: a little holiday cheer, dammit. And if that starts with shopping, so be it. I’m against retail therapy in theory, but lately I’ve discovered that I’m open to lots of things I’m against in theory. And if it’s sustainable, recyclable and/or indie-made, it’s barely even shopping at all. Right? Even if you’re buying a sustainable, recyclable, indie-made sweater for yourself?

Oh, and my friend JP is putting on a holiday puppet show.

And as if that weren’t enough, it’s eggnog latte season.


*Actually, my Thanksgiving was really nice. I ate minimally and crafted with the Ybarras. Then I finished up all my grading on Sunday and celebrated with AK and Leslie by consuming a Thanksgiving dinner’s worth of fries and pumpkin milkshake at a restaurant that is literally called the Oinkster.