Here's what's tricky about getting a gift for a kid, whether your own or someone else's: You want them to like it, obviously, but you also don't want to feel deep shame for having unwillingly acquiesced to the machinations of The Man and purchased yet another wholly expendable piece of crap with the words "death blaster" in the name.
These are pretty great, non-shame-inducing picks, IMO. (And I think your kids will love them.)
Do not be deceived by appearances; this child is searching for candy in his mom's hair.
I'm sorry, did I say "manipulate" children into taking an adorable holiday photo? I meant "convince."
Cajole?
Bribe with treats and the promise of being allowed to make gross sounds and not get in trouble?
(Whatever works.)
Thankful for a lot of things this year, including the fact that I didn't actually die from the stomach flu yesterday, despite appearances, and the fact that deathly illnesses are apparently a lot more fun when they involve a purring kitten on your chest. But one of the things I'm most thankful for of all is the chance to write books, and to see them on shelves; it's a dream come true to get to call myself an author, and - for my most recent project, and the next one - to get to work alongside such a searingly funny, talented partner.
So: coming up in Spring 2019...The Big Activity Book For Anxious People, by Erin and me. (Never before have there been two people more perfectly suited to tackle this subject matter.)
To kick off the whole process (and to celebrate a bit), Erin and I thought we'd do something a little different. If you make a donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, you'll be entered in a drawing to have the image of your choice (you, your best friend, your dog, a baked potato, whatever) drawn into the pages of the new book. Oh, and if you donate $100, you automatically get your image included somewhere in there. Support great cause --> be in awesome book. What's to to love?!
Sometimes you gotta go big or go home.
For this list, I asked a few editors, authors, friends, and assorted very cool people to tell me what they'd ask Santa for if Santa had recently come into a very large and unexpected inheritance and/or won a class-action lawsuit.
(The number of people who asked for an escape hatch of some sort - a.k.a. a time-travel machine or an island in the middle of the ocean - was spectacular, if not surprising.)
Every time the news alert on my phone beeps, I have a teeny, tiny heart attack. I mean, whatever it is, you know it's not good.
I think we could all use a little time-out from the real world this holiday season.
