Weekend Vibes: On Childhood Christmas Memories.

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My Latest Snags.

Purchased my favorite weekly planning pad / agenda — it’s under $20 and no-frills but absolutely perfect for my needs. I like to have a lot of space to write my to-dos each day. I supplement with this Appointed agenda, which I use solely to map out my essays and posts for Magpie and to jot down the highest-level goal(s) for each day — 1 or 2 max. For example, if I’ve been putting off filling out paperwork for something, I will jot that down in BIG letters and circle it, as in: YOU MUST DO THIS BEFORE THE DAY IS OVER COME HELL OR HIGH WATER. Somehow seeing the top-level, highest priority item isolated on that pad, next to my planned writing for the day, helps me focus. They can otherwise get lost in my laundry list of to-dos.

I also bought a few new beauty items. Especially excited to try this $8 foundation brush that’s been all over TikTok and this pressed powder from Kosas.

Finally, I stocked up on activities for the kids — I just know I’ll need some indoor activities during their winter break. I think they’ll freak over decorating/painting these peg dolls. If you are facing down a long, indoor, at-home break, some more ideas for entertaining young children here and here.

This Week’s Bestsellers.

Lots of last-minute gift purchases from this under-$50 gift guide this week! Not too late to order one or two to deliver after Christmas. (A smidgie!). Loved all the loungewear items you were into this week — I am also in the process of information-gathering as I scout out a couple of elevated athleisure pieces for true winter hibernation. I’m contemplating a few pieces from Mate, The Great, and Vuori. Any other brands you want me to review in this category?

01. PARIS SWEATSHIRT // 02. TRUFFLE POPCORN // 03. MELAMINE PLATES // 04. EXTERNAL BATTERY // 05. TARGET SEQUIN TOP // 06. DOEN KAIRA DRESS // 07. AZUL BOARD GAME // 08. ZIPPO HEAVY DUTY MATCHES (WORK IN WINDY/RAINY CONDITIONS!) // 09. JCREW SWEATER // 10. SLIP HAIR TIES // 11. HAIR CLIP SET // 12. LULULEMON SHERPA BELT BAG // 13. TARGET HALF-ZIP SWEATSHIRT // 14. KUHN RIKON JAR/BOTTLE OPENER // 15. TARGET BEST INEXPENSIVE SHEETS EVER // 16. DIAMOND DAZZLE CLEANING STICK // 17. VUORI PERFORMANCE JOGGER

Weekend Musing: Many Callings.

My son has trotted out the same anecdote three or four times this season: “Do you remember last year when we were driving back from Mimi and Grandpa’s and Daddy told us to look for Santa in the sky, and I said, ‘Who’s Santa?'” He delivers this with newborn archness each time, his eyes shining and his mouth twisting into a mischievous smile. Despite the fact that I don’t understand the punchline or recall the exchange, I laugh indulgently. Its repeat performances draws to mind the topography of my own childhood Christmas memory line: years that fuse together, details that gleam almost at random. Laying on the carpet of the living room, looking up at the tree lights overhead with my sister. The itchy plaid flannel pajamas my mother mandated for several Christmas Eves in a row. My bowl cut hair; waiting at the top of the steps as my Dad fumbled with the video recorder downstairs. “Wow, it looks like Santa caaaame!” he’d yell. A pair of Joe Boxer brand plaid pajama pants — this elastic waist band, brand emblazoned on it — that I loved as a tween that I remember wearing one Christmas Eve while my brother and I played hours of Mario Kart. The record my parents played each Christmas until they upgraded permanently to CDs: “A Child’s Christmas Treasury” I think it was called. My Dad’s favorite Christmas album: Elvis’s. The scotch tape always in our stockings that perfumed everything else it touched.

I am reminded of Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” in which he captures so crisply the peculiar continuities and discontinuities of childhood Christmases. How some details jut out, but you can’t place the year: you must ski in on them, landing in odd embankments.

Thomas writes:

“One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

All the Christmases roll down towards the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find.”

I’m sitting with his words today as I watch my own children amass their own holiday memories. Which will be the details that persist, and impress? Which will blur featurelessly together?

Post-Scripts.

+J. Crew’s just-released rollneck sweaters are phenomenal. Very La Ligne-esque with the wide ribbing, and the colors/stripes are SO good. I say go with the ivory (you’ll wear it forever and ever, trendy glacial blue, or navy stripe!)

+Cutest little pouch for a baby bag. Speaking of babies: I still receive emails from Kyte (my favorite sleep sack for my children — so, so soft) and how beyond adorable is their new vintage planes pattern?! I love to give these sleep sacks and jammies as gifts. So plush and sweet and lots of gender-neutral colors. I was so thrilled/touched when one of my girlfriends brought her daughter home from the hospital in the Kyte zippered footie I’d given her!

+I’ve been on a base layer buying spree. Just discovered the brand Almina and love the look of these lettuce-leaf-edged ribbed long sleeved tees for layering beneath my fleet of cardigans. Also love this simple scoopneck.

+Cutest sherpa jacket.

+So many of you raved about these souper cubes for freezing individual portions of soups in response to my “kitchen tips” post.

+Love these monogram applique pillows.

+Two of my girlfriends were raving about the Louise Penny mystery series. Downloaded one to read while away on a ski trip!

+Into the look of these Everlane crewnecks, too. (And these jeans from Everlane also turned my head…!)

+These Uniqlo beanies sell out nearly every year — great colors and on sale!

+Gorgeous piece of furniture for a back patio. I always feel like we need a “side board” or some place (that isn’t our dining table) to put things like the speaker, mosquito repellent (Thermocell is amazing), etc.

+Smiley face slippers for your teen. Or for you!