The KFW Edit
Joy to the world, the damn garland has been hung...
December 6, 2025
Is there anything more infuriating than hanging garland? In the realm of home maintenance and decorating activities, this is the event I dread all year long. Inevitably, it ends with me swearing, covered in tiny wounds inflicted by fake cedar and floral wire, sweating, and in need of a cocktail. I have tried and failed once already to hang the garland on our stairs. Even after consulting photos from last year, I managed to get halfway up the stairs before acknowledging that unless I was going to buy more garland (and subsequently get a divorce), I would need to start over. The garland then sat in a corner for 10 days thinking about what it had done before the kids finally convinced me to release it from its purgatory and try once again. It’s still wildly far from last year’s accidentally perfect garland application, but it will do. Obviously, I will show you only the prettiest part.
PS, this is the garland I love, with thanks to my friend Val for always finding the best of everything. It looks remarkably real and does not feel as plastic-y as many others. It does go on sale!
Speaking of holiday decorating, these doors look a little different this year! I’ll reveal the rest of the room soon. A hint: for those who voted “go dark,” you won’t be disappointed! It will be ages before it has furnishings that weren’t originally purchased for the outdoors, but it’s fun to look at all the same.
Black Friday is dead.
Most of us are of a certain age, and remember the onset of Black Friday mania: mothers and grandmothers in Sears parkas, wrestling through a crush of humans desperate for the last Cabbage Patch Kid for little Mary, literally stepping on other people’s children to acquire it. (Side note: my mother would never buy me a Cabbage Patch Kid, and I have still not recovered.) As we all know, with the dawn of the internet age, Black Friday bled into Cyber Monday - more days with more !one!day!only! prices. But now? Now, we have Cyber WEEK. This year, Cyber Week started the Monday *before* Thanksgiving, and is still going strong nine days later. And thus, Black Friday is dead. We all know none of these prices are going to change substantially between now and Christmas. And so, I will arrive at the point of this dissertation: everybody just calm the f**k down. There is already enough pressure at this time of year without having to plan and execute gift-buying for multiple children by the END OF NOVEMBER, who, by the way, cannot seem to compile a decent wishlist anyway. Rant over.
That said, what have I purchased that is worth sharing, besides enough LEGOs to recreate my own home?
I love this monthly subscription box for tweens and teen girls. My 11-year-old anxiously awaits its arrival every month. So fun.
Are tear-away sweatpants still cool? I really hope so, because shopping for a 13-year-old boy who only cares about sports and cologne (😒) is the pits (haha), and these at least fall loosely into the sports category.
Zara has the cutest stuff for girls.
And finally, we’ve always been fans of these kiwi crate subscription boxes!
The interwebs have been awash in funny videos to share. Would your significant other have a sense of humor about being called “dumb as a stump???”
Why is Spotify starting to feel like the weekly screen time report from my phone??
Love letters to my fellow Gen Xers…
I’m glad we still have Meryl, but the entertainment world is just not the same without Nora Ephron. Now go watch Sleepless in Seattle.
I feel all of this in my black GenX heart! Now I want a post about all the stuff you're buying yourself (or putting in carts and then abandoning) while "Christmas shopping" for others! 😉
It just keeps getting better & better! Thanks you for the laughs! 😘