My Little Advice Shop: Men and Holiday Shopping

Brown Paper Packages Tied up with String
Image by Chiot’s Run via Flickr

We know. You hate holiday shopping. Women expect the world, so you roll Santa Style and try to find it for her on Christmas Eve. These days, there’s a better way, and it makes you look like a rock star under the tree. The key? Keeping an eye on the magazines and websites your honey likes.

  • All sorts of publications do “gift guides” in the December issue of their magazine/paper. Real Simple is a magazine with terrific taste, and detailed gift ideas for the different people in your life. The newspapers do them too, so keep an eye out.
  • Another option is a website like Red Envelope. They offer a curated selection of gifts to choose from as opposed to wandering the Internet, overwhelmed by choices. Their sale section has some great stuff right now.
  • Shop early, as featured items can sell out. Then relax, and wave at Santa as he goes by, instead of trying to keep up.   Shop nice, y’all!
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My Little Marital Advice Shop: Setting Yourself Up To Fail (cough – Kim Kardashian)

Kim Kardashian at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festiv...
Mrs. Humphries

Yahoo’s OMG! big scoop today – Kim Kardashian Says Married Life So Far Has ‘Not Been Ideal’

I have three reactions.  From three perspectives.

1)  Perspective: Jewish Grandmother

Ideal? Who ever said anything about ideal? This is marriage sweetheart!  It takes work. And patience.  And matzoh ball soup.

2)  Perspective: Mine ( a year into a very happy marriage to a wonderful husband)

During wedding planning, don’t fall too deep into Ponies & Rainbows fairy-tale land.  They sweep up the rose petals, and suddenly there’s this thing called day-to-day life  If you’ve been obsessed with being the Princess Bride, the turning back into a pumpkin part is rough.

3) Perspective: your average fourth grader

Um, how does she expect things to be good? She’s making her new husband live with her sister, her baby, and the guy who’s the baby’s dad.  And they’re on TV.

Bottom line?  Know that life is never “ideal” to begin with, and you’re a hundred miles ahead of Kim Kardashian.

Hasta la blogsta-

Dinah

 

Once Upon a Time, at the Dining Room Table…

Photo of a dining room table piled with objects
Don't let clutter kill your fairy tale romance!

We dined, once, at our dining room table.  Then we got engaged. Suddenly piles of bridal magazines, boxes of invitations, and a flower girl basket took up residence.  Don’t let it happen to you.

“Why?” you may ask. “All that lovely flat space for storage.  Certainly a few months of dinner elsewhere won’t kill us.”  And you’re right – but it does, eventually, kill the romance in a relationship.  Normally romance doesn’t come easy, or cheap, but there is nothing so simple and special as to sit across from each other, light a few candles, and have a meal.  It doesn’t matter if you are eating frozen waffles on paper plates.  There’s something in the quality of the light that makes you both remember why you got engaged, married, pinned, whatever.

So watch one of those HGTV clutter busting shows, and keep that dining room table clear for some romance.  Sunday nights are perfect for a lovely dinner, but at the table – not in front of ABC’s promising new show…Once Upon a Time.