Things I Need to Figure Out (Preferably Soon)

[mrissa]

1. How to throw in lines of operetta without boring or appalling the readers.

2. How to keep from panicking at the smaller-than-peak but still utterly reasonable number of short stories I have in circulation.

3. What I am doing for Christmas baking, other than the obvious things. (Pepparkakor, fudge meringues in both raspberry and pistachio, gingerbread of the loaf variety, apple bread with toasted hazelnuts, layered fudge. Those are the obvious things. What else?)

4. What to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. (This problem is subtitled, "Can you teach a 95-year-old great-aunt new greens?" I suspect in this case the answer is yes. Your auntage may vary.)

5. How to send someone else grocery shopping and still end up with enough groceries to feed us actual meals.

6. What to read for ten minutes in the group reading at Fantasy Matters on Friday.

7. What to get a favored small person for his birthday. (Hint: not a rocket cake. Because ladysea is already making that. I had this explained to me very carefully more than once by the said small person.)

8. What to wear for Fantasy Matters that will also be appropriate for a concert that night, where by "appropriate" I mean "will not kill my feet, freeze my butt, or require timprov to look unduly menacing."

9. When I can wedge in additional lunch, dinner, tea, or general hanging-out with people I like but don't see enough of (that is to say, all the people I like, individually or in very small groups), and how I can do it without going into an introvert coma and hiding under my desk until Lucia Day.

10. What is wrong with the bathroom and who should fix it (who as in which professional, not which housemammal).

11. How on earth it can only be Tuesday, and, simultaneously, how on earth it can be mid-November already.

12. What novel to write next.

Comments

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sounds like you're stuck on #5. As for #7, that was right about when Boy hit his fire trucks phase. While I'm often a fan of non-major brands, on the fire truck front I never found anything to equal the Rescue Heroes line by Fischer-Price. Excellent quality and were still like-new when we handed them off to a younger child. Good quality wooden blocks were another big favorite. Unfortunately 4 is sort of too old for Duplo but not quite old enough for Lego for lots of kids. Boy also really dug the whole dress up thing at that age. He had a doctor kit from FAO Schwartz and a wide assortment of hats and gloves and costumey bits.

If you're the book-giving relative (which I am), the Pigeon books by Mo Willems are to die for. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Also the "Click Clack Moo" series by Betsey Lewin and Doreen Cronin are hysterical, age-appropriate and are still favorites in our house.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the ideas!

[ckd]

My niece absolutely loves Click Clack Moo.