Michele's Favorite Things

Okay, procrastinators, you have four days until Christmas. Usually, my spouse shops for Christmas presents the day before we exchange gifts, so I know all about your time crunch. Advanced procrastinators, I'm here to help you with your shopping. (This will mostly help you with your holiday gift buying for people like ME.)

I've included items for your sweetie's brain (books and games), body, heart, soul, and community.     Let's go!

Brain

Let's start with the part that matters most. If you and your sweetie are the types to play board games, try Akrotiri from Z-Man Games. It's my favorite new two-player game. (I gave it to my partner for his birthday.) The theme is exploration in Ancient Greece; gameplay combines tile placement, hand management, and pickup & delivery. 


​

​

​If computer games are more your speed, you MUST try "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes." One person, the defuser, handles a bomb (on your computer. Relax. It's a game.) Everyone else shares the bomb-defusal manual and provides advice to the defuser. This game is all about communication and keeping your cool. Buy it on Steam, and don't forget your manual.

​

 If your sweetie is a reader, I have two recommendations. Printz winner, I'll Give You the Sun, by Jandy Nelson was my favorite Young Adult Book this year. Told from the perspectives of twins Jude and Noah, this beautiful, compelling story studies familial relationships, sibling rivalry, and passion. (If you want other YA that's just as good, read John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, or Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park. Together, these are my top three YA works.) In stock at my bookstore!
​

Etta and Otto and Russell and James, by Emma Hooper, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. "Eighty-three-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Saskatchewan, Canada eastward to the sea. As Etta walks further toward the crashing waves, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur." It's a story of longing and self-discovery.

​Find it in your local bookstore, or mine.
​

Emma Straub's The Vacationers is just fun. Plugged as, An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca," it's a quick and satisfying examination of who we are and who we pretend to be. It also is in stock at my bookstore!

And one more game, for good measure. If you're more inclined to play games with many friends, try Hanabi. In this cooperative card game, you and 1-4 friends are putting on a huge fireworks display, but you need to launch the spectacle in the right order. Difficulty: you know which fireworks your friends have, but not your own. And you can provide only minimal information to your friends. In this game, again, if you fail, you blow up. (sorry.) Find it in your shop, or ask mine to ship it!

Body

If your sweetie is a runner (or trying to be a runner), the Brooks LSD Lite Jacket IV is the gift. It's the lightest waterproof breathable jacket I've found, and I love it. Bonus: it folds up into its own pocket. I'm a sucker for that. If you can't find it locally, my local running shop can ship to you.




​

Thriftware hand warmers from Kavu, made from recycled wood. You know this is one of my favorite things, because I bought them for my own stocking. They're all different. Mine don't look exactly like that, but you can't have mine anyway, because they're MINE. Buy your own here.

​Heart

​Blue Q makes sassy products, like NSFW socks. BUT, if you don't mind a bit of sass in your shoe, check our their super-fast shipping. They are friendly above the ankle (I love my job!) but often include colorful in-the-shoe commentary (Ha Ha Just Kidding.) The one featured here is TAME.

The best gifts aren't "things" at all. Feed your recipient's heart and soul with an experience instead. 
​

 

I love working in the kitchen, so I find cooking and baking courses pretty awesome. Be mindful: some cooking classes involve observation only, so be specific when you're hunting: you want a hands-on class. In Seattle, that means The Pantry at Delancey.
​

If I had infinite free time for practice, I would want violin lessons. (I'm saving that for my 2018 Christmas list, when all the children are in school.) Maybe your sweetie is passionate about violin, piano, ballet, or ceramics. It's never too late for any of those things. Help your sweetie start today.
​

Soul
If you can go all-out, with an unlimited budget, send yourself (and your sweetie, of course,) to   Whistler, B.C. for a week. The scenery is breathtaking, the skiing spectacular, and pizza (at Fat Tony's!) is fabulous. Whistler also boasts a fabulous little bookstore, Armchair Books, that has everything you could possibly need for cozy nights in.

Community
If I'm being honest, I have everything I need, and your sweetie might, too. Consider instead making a donation in his or her name to help people aren't as lucky as we are. People in our country and aroudn the world are in constant need of food, water, and shelter. If you don't enjoy research and just want to give, try Heifer International, which is working to eradicate poverty and hunger through sustainable, values-based holistic community development. Or donate to my local food bank in Seattle.