I don't have much shopping to do, being relatively poor and having fairly old children. We will all decide what we need and get that, or not, depending on the size of this month's royalties, or the lack thereof. Regardless of the bounty or booty, we will have a nice time with good food, warm fires, holiday decorations and time together. I am looking forward to it.
There is lots of distraction from the holidays (like work), but I'm determined to find some kind of spirit. Again, the weather is cooperating and a cool wind is preceding the cold rain to come. My kind of weather! I did manage to get the Christmas decorations out of the storage unit, but they remain in the back seat of the car, the far back still occupied by the baseball equipment. No tree, no wreath, no strings of light or wrapped packages (or presents awaiting wrapping, for that matter) adorn our little abode, yet.
Today is the 14th of December, so it is upon us, and as the clock ticks down towards Christmas, I am keenly aware that it is also ticking down towards the time when my middle son will return to his home in New Orleans. It makes me sad. I don't want him to go. Last night, as I was fixin' dinner (to say "cooking" dinner would be overly generous, given the nature of the fare), he was hanging there with me, playing his own beautiful composition on his mandolin. It totally amazes me that he can do that. He spent a long time convincing me to buy his first mandolin when he was just a middle schooler. They're expensive and I was not at all sure that he would stick with it, until he was "drafted" into his school's concert band and quickly found his way to first chair French horn, and I realized the aptitude was there, so gave into his pleas. The rest of the doing was his. He practiced and, when he realized he couldn't teach himself, begged for lessons, to which he devoted Sunday afternoons for a couple of years. He worked hard at it, completely self-motivated, and now he can do this amazing and wonderful thing. I just wish I could say or do something that would lead to his choosing not to return to New Orleans, at least not until next fall, but I don't think I can, and I wouldn't want him to stay on my account, anyway. He has to make his own decisions now and I trust that he knows what's best for him.
So, in the interest of providing myself you with some last minute shopping ideas as well as the feeling, real or imagined, that I'm doing some little thing for my son's adopted home, here are a few of my recommendations for holiday shopping, N'awlins Style:
For everyt'ing Cajun, including some of the best hot sauces and spices in the land, check out Pure Cajun Products at http://purecajun.com/index.htm. Be careful opening this link at work, as it comes with some lively local music. If the music won't get you caught shopping from your desk, the site is well worth a visit, with history, local color and a l'il bit of everyt'ing Cajun, Creole and New Orleans, from accordians to chicory coffee to turduckens, Cher.
Want some fine clothing items with a little crawfish logo where the Polo pony or Izod alligator goes? Try http://www.perlis.com/ for everything from hats to golf balls to underwear (I swear!) to fine golf clothing, all blessed with a little red crawfish (I couldn't make this stuff up). Not only will you be suppporting Louisiana, but it will show. And for those of you who may have someone on your list who wants a teddy bear, look into Bear Necessities at http://www.bearsandhares.com/ where you can find an adorable array of themed teddy bears including the (supposedly) famous Boyds bears. They also have these funky little Purse Lamps that caught my eye (if not my Visa).
Saving the best for last, when all else fails, try something sweet. You're not going to find a more interesting array of chocolates than from the fine folks at http://www.bluefrogchocolates.com/ where they actually sell candy that looks like a blue frog, and proudly display tongues turned blue by their confections, but you can also shop for candy assortments, gift baskets, fine hot chocolates and chai teas, as well as Italian Candy Flowers, the decoration that's good enough to eat. If your sweet tooth extends beyond chocolate, try http://www.southerncandymakers.com/StoreFront.bok where it's all about pralines and toffees, turtles (as in the chocolate, caramel and nut variety) and pecans. They offer fabulous looking products with names like Jackson Squares and Bourbon Street Bark along side of old fashioned divinity, fudge and salt water taffy.
I guess this holiday stuff is all about the planning, so we'll pick up, put up and decorate the tree this weekend, and, with any luck (and the help of the "Royalty Fairy" as Paula Reed called he/she/it at http://paulareed.blog-city.com/), I'll send my bevy of elves out shopping next week and pick up a few things myself, letting my fingers do the walking the new-fashioned way, without leaving my desk.
Note: I am once again having problems with our new and improved Blog-City interface. I used to be able to add links with abbreviated names, but couldn't seem to do that today. Apologies for the overly long link appearances, but I didn't seem to have any choice but to put in the entire URL. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment