The Magpie Diary: Dec. 8, 2024.

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Miscellaneous snapshots and dispatches from my week:

My kids were watching a Christmas movie in the basement on Saturday morning, and I did something I literally never do: I climbed back into bed and put on a Christmas movie myself. (This was the new Lindsay Lohan’s — smeh but she does look incredible! We love a rebound story!) Delightful and indulgent to grant myself this permission. Just a little nudge if you need it to slow down and enjoy something small like this.

Puzzle season! I’ve mentioned this many times but my son is full-on obsessed with them. His open-mouth concentration! We’re currently doing this skating scene for the second time this season. It’s cute — the puzzle itself is in the shape of snow globe.

All things Christmas. Would not recommend the holiday nog cookies but the peppermint milano slices are delightful. Also, if you notice that my wooden coffee table looks smeared and dinged up…it is. My kids use this to work on arts and crafts, draw, have snacks. It used to drive me crazy (and I do still spend a lot of time cleaning it) but sometimes I think about how one day I’ll miss this clutter, and the errant pom pom on the ground, and the glue smudge on the table, and the persistent spray of crayons and markers all over my living room. It doesn’t always dissolve my fatigue at constantly cleaning this space, but it does talk back to my frustration. A good mental shift any time I look in my kitchen and living room and think “a bomb has gone off in here.” It’s lucky, really, to have kids happily using this space. And ICYMI, our incense smoker is from Schoolhouse but old; you can find similar here. I bought this for Mr. Magpie two years ago and it’s one of our favorite parts of the season. We light it in the morning and in the evening and it dispenses this gorgeous smoky scent that frankly draws me back to standing in the freezing hallways of my parochial school’s Church rehearsing the Christmas Pageant.

Morning sustenance — your diet is more than what you eat! I love this book — more poetry than exposition. I’m always drawn to genre-benders.

Decor around the house went up this week! My kids were at an excitement level of 11/10 during this process.

I bought the live cedar garland from American Plant here in Bethesda and then added this orange garland — incredibly good price and just recently restocked! I know many of you bought this and have written to let me know how impressed you are with quality. I might order a second so that I can have the oranges running all the way down the garland, to the floor.

A really special moment last week — my son read the entirety of Serious Goose by Jimmy Kimmel (one of his favorite books!) to my mother. She was a Montessori school teacher before she married my father and is passionate about early literacy and also the absolute most patient person in the world — she sat there and let him sound out each and every word. He was deeply proud of himself. I’ll never forget the way he was beaming!

Ice skating! The kids have lessons every Saturday (and the skating aid he’s using above is not permitted during them, but my boy loves to whip around the ice with them when outside of class) and it’s becoming such a part of our weekend routine. I think I mentioned this recently, but I really love these Reima parkas for winter sports. Ultra warm, water-resistant, hooded, incredible quality. I just intuitively trust the Finnish with this.

Organic wine company Sophie James sent me a gift box of their wines this past week (!!!) and I couldn’t wait to try. We paired the sparkling rose with miso-glazed cod and a sesame soba noodle salad this week and it was perfect. Mr. Magpie broils the cod so that the sugar-miso coating caramelizes into this delicious syrupy sweet crust, and the sparkling wine — which has a good amount of acidity to it — was the perfect complement and contrast. We love drinking sparkling with anything rich or heavy. I mentioned this earlier this week, but they are gifting one lucky Magpie a year’s subscription to their wine club (and there is normally a multi-month wait list)! Just add your name to this list. They are going to pick a winner this week!

Another cool female-founded small business: Charmspring sent us their activity/chore charts for kids. My children loved setting these up, and it was interesting and eye opening to supervise their sequencing. It made me realize that my son especially is still developing the executive function to map out all the things he has to do, and in the proper order. We have a little bit of trouble in the morning with having him get through all the discrete tasks he must before running out the door to school — I feel like I’m constantly expediting him, reminding him to get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, etc. Watching him lay out this sequence using the board made me realize he’s not dilly-dallying necessarily — maybe he truly does need the guard rails. Anyway, a clever concept. Do take note of the size of the board you order (there are multiple styles / sizes) — ours are quite large, FYI. They gave us a code: $20 off with JEN20!

Last but not least: if you’re still shopping for holiday / Christmas eve jammies, these two are adorable. The Lake ones are still fully in stock (go up a size or two) in all sizes, and the Burts Bees are somehow on sale for $13.50/set! The latter would be cute for cousin matching without a huge price tag!

*****

A little Sunday shopping poetry…

OMG, did you know Quince makes adorable kids suitcases? I ordered my kids these! I think I will tuck their Disney “tickets” inside — I had these printed with details of the trip! Another Magpie recommended these beautiful handmade Minnie ears in case you’re hunting for another way to announce a Disney trip. // A bit risky as I’ve never tried them, but I just ordered a few tins and one of the packs of three “ballotin” boxes of these French style chocolate truffles from NYC-based chocolatier No Chewing Allowed to give as gifts. // Quickly becoming an Ann Mashburn loyalist — how fab is this red dress?! // Two other great holiday finds this week: these Larroude mules and this tartan Sezane skirt. // Trying these .04mm felt pens from Sharpie!

SEZANE TARTAN SKIRT // LARROUDE HEELS // ANN MASHBURN DRESS // QUINCE CHILDREN’S SUITCASE // DISNEYWORLD “TICKETS” // NO CHEWING ALLOWED TRUFFLES // SHARPIE PENS