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Five Valentine’s Day Gifts Sure to be, um, Remembered

Still searching for the perfect Valentine’s Day gifts for your loved ones?  Is your hunt stymied by stores brimming with generic gifts?  Your journey is over, my friend.  On a recent flight I found a blessing of shopping genius in the form of the catalog waiting  in my seat pocket. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, these are all very much real.  Serious kudos to the creative minds that brought these into existence. I culled only the best, the most unique, for you, my dear readers.

Behold (picture my grand, sweeping gesture): five gifts that will not soon be forgotten:

Toys

1. Punjabi Prison Match Ring – Teaches the finer points of conflict resolution to those sweet tots looking for a rumble.

Home & Garden

2. “The Zombie of Montclaire Moors” Statue – Nothing reminds your loved one of the joy of living like sipping a beverage on the back porch and seeing a dead person climbing up from the petunias.

3. “Bigfoot, the Garden Yeti” Statue – Need cuter, furrier creatures in your yard?  Look no further.  Comes with complimentary paparazzi visits.

4. Alien Gnome Bandits Garden Accent – When your standard garden gnome doesn’t cut it anymore, these buggy creatures will gently haul him off to a “large farm, where he has lots of room to run and play.”

On the Go

5. Underwater Cellular Phone System – We’ve all been there: your loved one is into his/her daily scuba excursion and wouldn’t you know it? They forgot to return that call. Or maybe they want to have that pizza delivered hot and fresh when they get to shore. Here’s the answer.  Only caution them to order the pizza clearly, not “bwuppuuwroni wi swwausage.”

So there you have it. Aren’t you relieved to have this burden off your shoulders? You’re welcome.

Pause, Part III

Hello again. It’s now a tradition of mine to post this each January. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Which is your favorite month of the year? Of course, January is everyone’s best-loved month, right?

Okay, probably not.

Ten or 15 years ago January was last on my list. Back then I didn’t like cold weather, and January just seemed like a bleak, blustery, colorless month that had to be endured. I wondered if a person could get in on the bears’ hibernation deal.

What changed? Maybe it was when I got married in a January wedding. Suddenly there was a permanent bright spot on the calendar that time every year. Also around that time I launched into my transition from a hot-weather loving/cold-weather shunning girl into quite the opposite.

Whatever the reason, I now really like the first month of the year. While not my absolute favorite, it does have its charms. Yes, after Christmas and New Year’s, life resumes with the hustle and bustle of daily routines. …But overall, there seems to be a quiet simplicity that hushes the land. A brisk stillness that can be seen in bare tree branches and blankets of snow. It’s as if nature has paused for a moment.

It’s a welcome chance for me to pause as well, reminiscing with a smile about the holidays, being grateful for countless blessings, and feeling hopeful about the time ahead. Maybe that’s also why I’m drinking hot chocolate more often–it’s a chance to warm up and take a moment to stop and just think…often a rarity in our busy days.

(At least that’s the reason I tell myself as I take another sip.) =)