Future Monsters Gremlin shirt
I’m a sucker for a good graphic tee. So when I saw this Gremlin/Christmas beaut, I had to have it. I didn’t grow up watching a lot of the “Christmas classics.” I didn’t watch Christmas on whatever street (too lazy to even google it) or that one where the kid is wearing a bunny outfit. Coming up with a favorite Christmas movie (when asked) has always been a challenge. So yes, I’m that bitch that claims Die Hard and Gremlins as Christmas movies, with an honorary mention toward Edward Scissorhands.
Anyway, I haven’t worn the shirt yet, but ‘tis the season, so I’m sure it’ll get some good play soon. @futuremonsters
Meet the Latkes and Five Little Gefiltes
I got these books as a gift for my kiddos for one of the nights of Hanukkah. They’re both freakin’ adorable and incorporate the most scrumptious of Yiddish words. Meet the Latkes tells the story of Hanukkah in a silly, fun way. Five Little Gefiltes is more of a rhyming book (not Hanukkah related) that rhymes to the beat of the “Five Little Ducks” song. It ties in things like the deli, matzo balls, fun Jewish words, and explains what gefilte fish is – “feh!” Good stuff.
I bought this one for my baby niece for Hanukkah. It’s a super cute little board book. Full disclosure: I didn’t read the whole thing before giving it to her but I skimmed it and I loved what I saw. Each page features a parent and a baby of some Hanukkah item – Mama dreidel/baby dreidel, etc.
I mean, I saw it on Amazon and do I even need to say anything else? As a kid who grew up celebrating both of these holidays and as an avid lover of The O.C., this banner was MINE. Look, I dunno if Seth Cohen (i.e. the writers of The O.C.) actually invented the term “Chrismukkah”, BUT Seth definitely popularized it. And for the confused little interfaith Jews like me out there, we felt fuckin’ seen.
I bought this as a game to play at Hanukkah. My kids are still too young to really have the focus to commit to games, and to be fair, I don’t either most of the time. But this one is easy and it moves fast, which works best for me. It’s modeled after the game “Sorry!” but you have different prompts based on whether you roll a nun, gimel, hei, or shin. My siblings and I played it on Hanukkah. It was taking forever so we called it after the first piece made it to (the) Home(land).
Not a super exciting tchotchke to be honest, and I wasn’t sure I should include it. But look, it’s practical and I’m a Virgo so it deserves a mention I think. I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile. I’ve photographed 100s of weddings in the last 9 years or so, and at almost everyone, there’s a mom on her knees lovingly, mezmorizingly, scanning one of these over the bride’s dress, carefully relieving it of a single wrinkle. I always said in my head, “Wow – I need to get one of those.”
Well, I made a little photo studio in my basement and I use a lot of fabrics as backdrops, and they get wrinkly af. So I bought this and used it and it worked pretty good. It’s a cheaper one, not one of the big heavy duty bad boys like those moms have, but it definitely made a huge improvement. And if I had more patience I’m sure I could have gotten even more of the creases out.
Overall, it was a successful tchotchke month if I do say so myself.
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