Tree: Part Two

With two semi-cooperative toddlers strapped in the back seat, we went in search of the living Christmas tree I wrote about last week. The Lopez tree lot, the one that was supposed to sell the living trees, doesn’t have them. And I should add that they don’t have a lot of holiday spirit either considering the response to our request for one. 

Sorry if I led you astray!

So we got in the car and headed back to our old faithful Delancey Street Foundation lot near our house. It’s the country’s largest self-help organization for former substance abusers and, in a way, it’s sort of become a holiday tradition. Not quite as festive as trudging out into the pine-scented wilderness to plant a tree, but it’s LA. What can you do?   Fig. 1 Not Los Angeles

This year, it turns out, they’re selling certified “green” trees from a coalition of environmentally conscious growers. So we put our dead little tree in the corner of the living room and covered it with sparkly bits just like every other weirdo in the world. And now we’re waiting for one of the twins to knock it down.

Happy Christmas!

The Last to Know

How is it that an ice cream-based campaign to help save the honey bees has escaped my attention for nearly a YEAR?? I just stumbled on to Haagen-Dazs’s (Dazs’? Forget the Umlaut. I’ve got twins for Christ’s sake.) “Help the Honey Bees” website. Honey bees are disappearing faster than you can say “RAID” and so much of the food we eat is dependent on their hard work. So the Dazsers over at Haagen cooked up a couple of limited-edition flavors to promote the cause and raise money for honey bee research. This started way back in February and I’m a little distraught that I’m just finding out now. Vanilla Honey Bee is “GOOO-ood” as my son Lou likes to say. Don’t bother going to buy it at the Pavilions on Melrose and Vine because I looted the place of their last pints in a desperate ice-cream fueled frenzy.

And it all goes away in about a week, double-scoopers, I kid you not.

If you miss out on the goods, you can still log on to the site and accessorize your own little e-bee and send it to a cyber friend. Or to look up a recipe to recreate this bee cookie presentation above. Which is completely not happening in my house.

Happy ice cream!

Weepy Wednesday

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Til Tuesday. I skipped them all and put off my holiday shopping bonanza for as long as possible. Not sure if you’re following the subtle thread throughout these posts, but I’m not so into the retail spirit of Christmas this year. A person being trampled to death by a mob in search of cheap socks can be a real mood killer. Anyway, this morning I woke up in a small panic, determined to shake that lump of coal out of my handbag and start buying some crap.

So I started sifting through the sheets I’ve teared out of magazines and stuffed in my gift folder. (Please don’t mistake this for organization. It’s a sad little folder.) And I came across the Cookies for Kids Cancer story I’d ripped from the recent issue of Cookie. This story has been all over the place but it can’t hurt to spread the word some more. The trials that Liam Witt, the four-year-old son of the organization’s founders who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, has endured are impossibly heart breaking. What’s even harder to stomach is Liam’s mom’s blog about his most recent setback and treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York. A synopsis just won’t do it justice so if you’re feeling brave, check it out. I read it this morning while the kids were out for a walk and therefore, I declare today weepy Wednesday. 

Reader, buy some cookies.

Obviously, it’s a worthy cause and it’s all volunteer and donation driven so 100% of the proceeds go to pediatric cancer research. You can even host your own bake sale if you’re good with the flour.  

Another way to help kids with cancer? Contact your local children’s hospital and find out how to donate blood and/or platelets. My husband’s a regular platelet-giving guy, and my friend Kori just told me that her husband gives platelets as a way of supporting their friend’s child who’s also a pediatric cancer patient. 

And lastly—to end on a much, much lighter note—you can spread the good, mindless word about Ashlee, Paris, LC, Britney and friends by donating a subscription to UsWeekly. I am not kidding when I tell you that Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles requests magazine subscriptions to have on hand for teenage patients and their parents. While you’re at it, throw in Teen Vogue (How much do I love Teen Vogue?) for $20. Or, to make this a kid-friendly experience, browse through the list of requested books to donate to the hospital’s mobile children’s library. 

Now as soon as my keyboard dries I can get back to shopping.