my first ever cookie swap

My mom has many talents, but baking is not one of them. My Dad was and still is the family baker, but I don’t remember him ever heading to a cookie exchange to swap Betty Crocker treats.

So having just attended my very first cookie swap, I can definitively say that my parents missed out. I must have come home with five pounds of sugary goodness, from dark chocolate bark with Marcona almonds to a cookie called Santa’s Crack.

Jodi’s famous cookie swaps were immortalized in this article last year. And she wrote a how-to for throwing your own. I particularly adored the stacks of heavy bakery boxes and waxed paper she puts out for everyone’s haul (not to mention her most excellent wallpaper).

lo-fi holiday doings, part I

Back in Virginia, the small town I grew up in really turns it on for the holidays. Driving back from mass on Christmas Eve, our family would take a slow tour of the lights, pulling over to the curb in the dark night to admire the elegant and the gaudy alike.

Here in San Francisco, heading downtown to see storefronts and street decorations is the best approximation of that tradition. Sure, it’s a little less peaceful, but if you don’t have any shopping to do, you can actually find some stillness among the throngs of harried shoppers. And if you’re quiet, you’ll notice the steel drum version of carols being played on street corners, and hear the icy scrapes of blades on the temporary skating rink.

I have always loved downtown during the holidays, but the very best is going with my sister and niece and nephew and wandering around together, with our heads tilted upward.

Macy’s holds a special place in our heart – plus, they go all out with their windows. It’s the big leagues. I am tempted to say that they almost cheat – I mean, they bring in kittens and puppies and create little animal-sized cities around them. How can mere lights and greenery compete with kittens? But the animals are all up for adoption, so I suppose I would be a terrible person if I considered that somehow nefarious.

We soaked up all the festive glitz before installing ourselves rinkside at an outdoor café for salami and a glass of wine.

Sure, it’s a cosmopolitan take on the family tradition. But the slow, stargazey sentiment makes it feel almost the same.

are you ready?

What a doozy of a week. Time is flying and I usually try to hold back the barricades on all things holiday until after Thanksgiving. But then I saw this Gifted holiday magazine from the creative wonder Ez at Creature Comforts. I want to be all about lo-fi decorations this year.



so long, decorations

The decorations are coming down, and honestly, I’m not that sad to see them go. I love putting them up and basking in the glow of the lights when they’re up. But then it feels equally right to pack everything up after the hoopla winds down, and move into the new year feeling a little more unencumbered. Plus, we do get a last hoorah: we push our tree out the front window of our apartment and then drag it to the corner, which always provides a final little burst of joy.

You may have noticed I have a thing for hauling branches and fallen bits of trees inside. This one came home with me on a morning dog walk, and I set up it in a neglected little corner to arch over a doorway. The only other thing to do was hang some simple straw ornaments from Ikea.

And while I’ve been getting antsy to put everything else away, this is one that might linger (or not, I still haven’t decided). The bare, wintry branches are lovely to see when you come into the front hallway.

In this last photo, you might just make out the fuzzy silhouettes of paper decorations I made and hung to create a kind of curtain effect above the stairs. They added a clean, wintry touch and were super quick and satisfying to slice up one evening.

So long, holidays. It’s been nice spending time together.