Weekend plans (& Friday links)

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Happy December 9th! It’s sort of dropped off from the celebration rotation, but Aron and I still keep this date on the calendar as the anniversary of our engagement. It was 11 years ago that he opened the door to our Los Angeles apartment to welcome me home with his heartbeat visible through a dusty pink shirt and I love recalling it, every year. We’ll get to do some special things this weekend that will count toward marking the occasion: tomorrow we’ll get dressed up to go to a fancy holiday party, and Sunday we get to sneak away to San Francisco to do some holiday shopping. It’s amazing how much fun browsing can be without the kids!

This will also be the weekend that we meet up with Santa. The jolly old elf will be coming to breakfast in Davis on Saturday morning, so we sat down this past week and wrote letters. I wrote about this last year and so enjoyed reading about everyone’s Santa traditions.

What plans do you have in store?

Here are some links of note if you’re in the mood… 

That time we met Santa on 34th Street.

What a great idea for a homemade gift. Adding to list “things to gift in Weck Jars”: Chai Sugar Jars

How to say no.

Sort of related: Inbox Zero sounds like Nirvana. Only slightly kidding.

Our views on income inequality. An interesting read.

Just discovered Give In Kind, a site for setting up care for loved ones in times of crisis or need.

Living with Plants. Care tips for succulents and cacti—for the truly black-thumbed? Looks beautiful.

100 million more reasons to admire Sheyrl Sandberg

Is Lego the perfect toy?

I’m also looking for children’s books that invite exploring, like the Larry Gets Lost books. Here’s a new one about San Francisco that looks sweet.

Collected wisdom of great writers, on writing.

And, turning back to politics, Stephen Colbert on #Pizzagate and his role in the news. (And while you’re on the subject, Samantha Bee.)

Tina Fey on why Hillary lost. (Better if then, afterward, you watch the “fight song” and look for Alan Cumming just hugging his dog in his kitchen. Takes on a whole ‘nother meaning! If you need to skip ahead, I was laughed out loud around the three minute mark.)

This is a bit out of season, but this has to be one of my favorite photo backdrop ideas, ever! Bookmarking for summer.

Since we’re talking about Tweets so much these days, a provocative one on normative language

Horrifying images and reporting from Duterte government’s sanctioned anti-drug violence in the Phillipines. (Which Duterte said, and the team would not deny, was endorsed by our president-elect in their phone call last week, so you might want a look.)

Finally, I’ve been talking to Aron about my fears about the resentment and the seeds of distrust this election will plant, particularly for those who will be most marginalized by possible policy changes, for our children, and he reminded me that the majority of Americans did not choose this outcome. That’s a bit reassuring.

Have a nice weekend!

[Photo from this Latte Art cheat sheet]

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