Holiday Shopping! Oy!

[Angeline]

How's that going for you? I have to admit I'm almost done (with stuff wrapped even, but I need to mail a lot of it out by early December.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have a thread to share gift ideas, recipes, raves, rants, whatever. You could even write a poem!

Here's a link to a site of a fellow litster (A GB person) who handcrafts some cool stuff. I especially like the tote bags she does for little kids, and her prices seem quite reasonable. (And uh no I don't get a kickback lol: I barely know her). Contact info is on her site if you're interested.

And I am interested in recipes for cookies/sweets that ship well. Any recommendations?

Merci! Peu embrassent!

 

[Liar]

Here's a link to another litster who handcrafts... well... stuff. Check it out.

 

[Angeline]

Here's a link to another litster who handcrafts... well... stuff. Check it out.

Beautiful...stuff. Evie? Look at this...stuff.

 

[WickedEve]

Beautiful...stuff. Evie? Look at this...stuff.

I already did before I saw your post.
I've seen his stuff before. It's gorgeous.

 

[Angeline]

I already did before I saw your post.
I've seen his stuff before. It's gorgeous.

Yes, but does Hugo know about it?

This is the holiday thread, you know.

(Did you get my pm? I need help! As usual lol.)

 

[WickedEve]

Yes, but does Hugo know about it?

This is the holiday thread, you know.

(Did you get my pm? I need help! As usual lol.)

Just answered it.

Hugo has already bought plenty of toys for me.

Like a bondage chair. Honestly, I can sit in a chair without being strapped in. I haven't slid out of one since I was a baby.

 

[Liar]

I already did before I saw your post.
I've seen his stuff before. It's gorgeous.

For the record, it's a her.

 

[Angeline]

Just answered it.

Hugo has already bought plenty of toys for me.

Like a bondage chair. Honestly, I can sit in a chair without being strapped in. I haven't slid out of one since I was a baby.

Do they come with phone books? That's what my folks always made me sit on before they strapped me in so I wouldn't slide out. Well until I peed on the phone books.

 

[wildsweetone]

Just answered it.

Hugo has already bought plenty of toys for me.

Like a bondage chair. Honestly, I can sit in a chair without being strapped in. I haven't slid out of one since I was a baby.

sounds like it must be holiday season.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Goodness me what an eyeopener ... ummmm errr where was I oh yes where do you want your recipe thingies to ship to? I can make a scrumptious but low fat chocolate cheesecake. Might be hard to tell you though if you can't get the same ingredients over the pond.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Like a bondage chair.

oooooohhh! Santa santa santa is it too late to add something else to my list? I know, I know, it's pretty long already but I've been sooo goooood....

bj

(i'm speaking of course about a picture of Eve in the chair. framed and autographed.)

 

[Angeline]

oooooohhh! Santa santa santa is it too late to add something else to my list? I know, I know, it's pretty long already but I've been sooo goooood....

bj

(i'm speaking of course about a picture of Eve in the chair. framed and autographed.)

You won't get a bondage chair by being good, Missy. Well, so to speak....

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have a thread to share gift ideas, recipes, raves, rants, whatever. You could even write a poem!


Merci! Peu embrassent!

Back in college I had to invent a party for the holidays. See, we were all ramen-guzzling students with no budget, so no one had scratch for presents for our friends until we all went home on break to get our Xmas money. So we started the Baba Yaga Party.

A week or so after new year's, we'd gather at my place and everyone would put their shoes in one room. Everybody would bring some little thing that would go round 20 people, like a bag of candy or party favors or little toys. Then we'd take turns going into the room one at a time and distributing stuff to people's shoes. Anyone who wanted to give actual presents could do that too but we all tagged them "from Baba Yaga" so no one knew who was - or wasn't - being able to spend money that year. I'd also tell people to bring one little extra little $5 thing if they could, so they could put it in any shoes that were looking a little bare.

It was always so astounding to go in after everyone had taken their stuff in, and see the incredible mounds of stuff on everyone's shoes. It was like stone soup - nobody really had that much, but when we held a potlach like that it turned into immense generosity. And then I'd get my favorite moment of the year - watching all my friends open presents and play with idiotic toys and generally be blown away by all the stuff.

That party started in 1985 and is still going strong. Several of my friends have started similar events for their circles. The thing I've noticed is that there's always one unplanned attendee, someone who shows up unexpectedly or gets invited at the last minute, and they often end up with the biggest mountain of presents.

My crowd, unsurprisingly, favors weird toys, so there are always things like groucho glasses and rubber ducks and wind-up toys and other crazy shit that we all end up playing with all night. I've gotten lots of lovely serious gifts over the years, but it's the wearable flashing devil horns and wind-up chattering teeth and whoopee cushions and chinese finger traps that I end up remembering... Other weird traditions have been added over the years, like putting on the Ceremonial Baba Yaga Hat when you go in to distribute your presents. I don't even know where that one came from but it's now a different hat every year. Last year it was a purple sequined pimp fedora; the year before it was an ornate Tibetan affair with lots of coins sewn to it.

One of the great advantages that we've discovered over the years about the Baba Yaga party is that since it doesn't happen till after the new year, we can all just chill and feel smug while everyone else runs around trying to get everything done by xmas. And then we hit the sales for OUR stuff. bwa ha ha.

My business partner has a buncha grandchildren so she's established that tradition with them. They go nuts. A whole herd of people playing with cheap toys and eating candy and being immature is WAY more fun than sitting around watching who-gave-who-foo one present at a time for hours.

Highly recommend it.

bj

 

[unpredictablebijou]

You won't get a bondage chair by being good, Missy. Well, so to speak....

I have faith. Santa knows how very, um, good I've been. (reckless eyebrows)

bj

 

[Angeline]

Back in college I had to invent a party for the holidays. See, we were all ramen-guzzling students with no budget, so no one had scratch for presents for our friends until we all went home on break to get our Xmas money. So we started the Baba Yaga Party.

A week or so after new year's, we'd gather at my place and everyone would put their shoes in one room. Everybody would bring some little thing that would go round 20 people, like a bag of candy or party favors or little toys. Then we'd take turns going into the room one at a time and distributing stuff to people's shoes. Anyone who wanted to give actual presents could do that too but we all tagged them "from Baba Yaga" so no one knew who was - or wasn't - being able to spend money that year. I'd also tell people to bring one little extra little $5 thing if they could, so they could put it in any shoes that were looking a little bare.

It was always so astounding to go in after everyone had taken their stuff in, and see the incredible mounds of stuff on everyone's shoes. It was like stone soup - nobody really had that much, but when we held a potlach like that it turned into immense generosity. And then I'd get my favorite moment of the year - watching all my friends open presents and play with idiotic toys and generally be blown away by all the stuff.

That party started in 1985 and is still going strong. Several of my friends have started similar events for their circles. The thing I've noticed is that there's always one unplanned attendee, someone who shows up unexpectedly or gets invited at the last minute, and they often end up with the biggest mountain of presents.

My crowd, unsurprisingly, favors weird toys, so there are always things like groucho glasses and rubber ducks and wind-up toys and other crazy shit that we all end up playing with all night. I've gotten lots of lovely serious gifts over the years, but it's the wearable flashing devil horns and wind-up chattering teeth and whoopee cushions and chinese finger traps that I end up remembering... Other weird traditions have been added over the years, like putting on the Ceremonial Baba Yaga Hat when you go in to distribute your presents. I don't even know where that one came from but it's now a different hat every year. Last year it was a purple sequined pimp fedora; the year before it was an ornate Tibetan affair with lots of coins sewn to it.

One of the great advantages that we've discovered over the years about the Baba Yaga party is that since it doesn't happen till after the new year, we can all just chill and feel smug while everyone else runs around trying to get everything done by xmas. And then we hit the sales for OUR stuff. bwa ha ha.

My business partner has a buncha grandchildren so she's established that tradition with them. They go nuts. A whole herd of people playing with cheap toys and eating candy and being immature is WAY more fun than sitting around watching who-gave-who-foo one present at a time for hours.

Highly recommend it.

bj

Now that's a great idea. Certainly beats the secret Santa thing people do at their jobs, Although one place I worked, we did a White Elephant round robin every Christmas that was great. People went all out to bring the most awful wedding present/doorstop/attic oddity they could find. One year I got two wildly garish ceramic birds of paradise. You get the idea.

My crowning achievement in college was inventing the Beowulf game, a board game. You rolled dice and went around the squares that made you do various things (like answer trivia about Beowulf). When you got enough points, you were eligible to enter Heorot Hall. The first person there who died and went to heaven won the game (in the best Viking tradition). Okay, so it wasn't my *crowning achievement* in college, but my prof was pretty blown away by it.

My grandma told Baba Yaga stories.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Now that's a great idea. Certainly beats the secret Santa thing people do at their jobs, Although one place I worked, we did a White Elephant round robin every Christmas that was great. People went all out to bring the most awful wedding present/doorstop/attic oddity they could find. One year I got two wildly garish ceramic birds of paradise. You get the idea.

My crowning achievement in college was inventing the Beowulf game, a board game. You rolled dice and went around the squares that made you do various things (like answer trivia about Beowulf). When you got enough points, you were eligible to enter Heorot Hall. The first person there who died and went to heaven won the game (in the best Viking tradition). Okay, so it wasn't my *crowning achievement* in college, but my prof was pretty blown away by it.

My grandma told Baba Yaga stories.

y'see, that's why I love this place. Let's remember that Normal People wouldn't go, "ooo, a Beowulf board game? Where you can answer questions and stuff? Wow kewl!" But of course that's what I just did.

Now, of course, Beowulf's all cool with the normals for the next ten minutes because of that movie, but still, when I start speaking Anglo-Saxon everybody's eyes roll back in their heads.

Except in here, of course, among my fellow literature geeks. thank you, oh thank you for having this place so I can feel at home...

sincere smooches
bj

i bet your real crowning achievements in college were somewhat... saltier.

 

[Unbridled_Passion]

I have found a new love this year... online shopping! I have yet to step foot in a store, I just click and presto.. it is delivered to my front steps. Now, wht didn't I think of this before?

 

[Angeline]

I have found a new love this year... online shopping! I have yet to step foot in a store, I just click and presto.. it is delivered to my front steps. Now, wht didn't I think of this before?

I do almost all my shopping online. Isn't it wonderful? No parking spaces to fight for, no snotty kids with attitude waiting on me, no lines of people acting out of control. I'll go to small, independent shops, but I avoid malls like the plague.

 

[Angeline]

y'see, that's why I love this place. Let's remember that Normal People wouldn't go, "ooo, a Beowulf board game? Where you can answer questions and stuff? Wow kewl!" But of course that's what I just did.

Now, of course, Beowulf's all cool with the normals for the next ten minutes because of that movie, but still, when I start speaking Anglo-Saxon everybody's eyes roll back in their heads.

Except in here, of course, among my fellow literature geeks. thank you, oh thank you for having this place so I can feel at home...

sincere smooches
bj

i bet your real crowning achievements in college were somewhat... saltier.

That's why I'm here. Most people in my corporeal world that I've told about the Beowulf game (or various other interests of mine) have looked at me like I have two heads.

Actually my crowning achievement in college was a two-year study on Charles Dickens. The first year I wrote about female archetypes in his novels and the second year I wrote about Dickens, Sentimentality and Victorian England. By the middle of the second year I think I was channeling him.

The salty parts were mostly away from college and often involved Greenwich Village, the East Village to be exact.

 

[Angeline]

Does anyone else know about Etsy? I didn't until recently. Everything there is handmade, sort of an ebay for handmade stuff (but no auctions, you just buy it). There are crafters there from all over the world, much of the stuff is amazing and prices (even with shipping) can be very reasonable. Really, a cool, cool site.

*​

And I made this today and am very proud of myself.

Turtle Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Crust
30-40 oreo halves with the filling scraped off
1 stick of butter (8 Tablespoons)
Melt butter, grind cookies to crumbs (food processor or blender works great).
Mix crumbs and butter until just moist and empty into 9 or 10" pie plate.
With your fingers, press the crust in the bottom and 1" up the sides of the plate.
Chill in fridge for an hour. Crust will harden.

Filling
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese (16 oz total)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup toasted pecans
3-4 Tablespoons caramel sauce
Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till combined. Add eggs and beat till smooth.
Place toasted pecans on bottom of crust then drizzle with caramel sauce.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the pecans to fill the pie plate.
Place pie plate on cookie sheet and bake 30-35 minutes till set.
Let the pie cool to room temperature.

Topping
Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup cream (half-and-half or light cream are fine)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted pecans
2-3 Tablespoons caramel sauce
Heat cream till is almost boiling then pour over chocolate chips, stirring with a spatula until smooth and combined.
Let cool (do not pour hot ganache on cheesecake).
Spread ganache over top of cheesecake, then top with more toasted pecans and another drizzle of caramel sauce.
Chill in fridge until set (at least a few hours).

It's a beautiful and sinfully good cake. It's about a zillion calories, but I'm just having a teeny piece and giving the rest to a teenager (one of his birthday gifts), so it's all cool.

 

[champagne1982]

Does anyone else know about Etsy? I didn't until recently. Everything there is handmade, sort of an ebay for handmade stuff (but no auctions, you just buy it). There are crafters there from all over the world, much of the stuff is amazing and prices (even with shipping) can be very reasonable. Really, a cool, cool site.

*​

And I made this today and am very proud of myself.

Turtle Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Crust
30-40 oreo halves with the filling scraped off
1 stick of butter (8 Tablespoons)
Melt butter, grind cookies to crumbs (food processor or blender works great).
Mix crumbs and butter until just moist and empty into 9 or 10" pie plate.
With your fingers, press the crust in the bottom and 1" up the sides of the plate.
Chill in fridge for an hour. Crust will harden.

Filling
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese (16 oz total)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup toasted pecans
3-4 Tablespoons caramel sauce
Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till combined. Add eggs and beat till smooth.
Place toasted pecans on bottom of crust then drizzle with caramel sauce.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the pecans to fill the pie plate.
Place pie plate on cookie sheet and bake 30-35 minutes till set.
Let the pie cool to room temperature.

Topping
Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup cream (half-and-half or light cream are fine)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted pecans
2-3 Tablespoons caramel sauce
Heat cream till is almost boiling then pour over chocolate chips, stirring with a spatula until smooth and combined.
Let cool (do not pour hot ganache on cheesecake).
Spread ganache over top of cheesecake, then top with more toasted pecans and another drizzle of caramel sauce.
Chill in fridge until set (at least a few hours).

It's a beautiful and sinfully good cake. It's about a zillion calories, but I'm just having a teeny piece and giving the rest to a teenager (one of his birthday gifts), so it's all cool.

Channuka's not just about dredels I see. It's about chocolate. We should create an interfaith (faithless?) faith holiday and base it on a celebration of chocolate. If you pray fervently enough, the choccie angels will hold your hips in while you do up your denim.

 

[Guest]

And I made this today and am very proud of myself.

Turtle Cheesecake

Yum-may, but I think I went into a diabetic coma reading that recipe.

 

[Angeline]

Yum-may, but I think I went into a diabetic coma reading that recipe.

I know lol. But the cheesecake itself isn't very sweet so it's not as bad as you think. Definitely something I'd only make for a celebration. You can only take a little at a time.

 

[LeBroz]

.
.

OMG! Cheesecake — the cure for everything.

.
.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Channuka's not just about dredels I see. It's about chocolate. We should create an interfaith (faithless?) faith holiday and base it on a celebration of chocolate. If you pray fervently enough, the choccie angels will hold your hips in while you do up your denim.

Perhaps it's time for me to proselytize a bit about my faith, Clausianism, or Santatology. We worship and serve Santa in all that we do. Chocolate is our sacrament. And cookies and milk, too, on the High Holidays.

There are many things about our obscure religion that I suspect you'd find appealing. Let me give you this little pamphlet...

Santa Rules! Hail Santa!

bijou