Archimage

Yesterday, I had two luxurious hours completely to myself while the kids were at a birthday party so I went Christmas shopping at one of my favorite little stores: Archimage. In addition to getting heaps of great stocking stuffers for the kids (and who wouldn't want bloody eyeball band-aids in their stockings?), I found gag items for the under $10 Christmas fiesta gift swap across the street next weekend.

I wonder what lucky neighbor will be boastfully toting this beauty around Wegmans in the new year?



Or what happy party goer will be proudly serving gin & titonics next summer? (Whoever it is, I'll be there. These ice cube trays serve as an open invite, right?)


Lastly, I got a little magnet for my girlfriend/co-worker Jennifer who is in a constant battle of the sexes with her husband of a gazillion years.



Seriously though, if a man speaks in the middle of a forest and there is no woman around to hear him, IS he still wrong?

This is just the tip of the iceberg (no ice cube pun intended). I did way too much damage in one little store in return for nothing substantive. As I heard in church this morning, Christmas is like being mugged. It comes rushing in, empties your wallet and is gone in a flash.

But it's still fun!

Benefit Concerts

While watching Son #2's Little League game yesterday, Son #1 said to me, "One of the three bands I'm going to be in when I'm older is going to make it big. I want to be so famous that we can put on benefit concerts for the poor. And teach people who don't know English how to read and write. I'm also going to take a lot of the money that I make when I'm rich and build houses for the homeless."

I told him that he had complete support for that venture.

Later, we went to see daddy play a benefit concert for a local lumberjack celebrity, Dave Jewett, who is trying to raise funds for his recent kidney transplant and the long-term costs associated with a lifetime of cost-prohibitive medication.

When we didn't win anything in the raffle and some lucky man outbid me in the final throes of the silent auction for the villa in Cabo, Son #1 was dismayed. Then the hubby informed him that the money went to a good cause and he relaxed. I then wondered if he knew about today's benefit concert when he made the comment in the morning . . .

Regardless, I hope that as a family, we can become more altruistic. We have a lot to be thankful for.