every red-dipped petal.

[oleanderknife]

Lemon sugar cookies for all, naturally, with each package.

1. Henry: Celestron CGE 1100 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with StarBright XLT coatings. Catadioptrics like these are the most well-rounded; this one has a 280mm aperture, is useful for long-exposure photography, and can be operated remotely from a PC. ...I don't know if this is unromantic of me; he's not too difficult to please, where I'm concerned, but oddly that makes me more invested in making it perfect because it's harder to tell what is perfect. Spending Christmas together is sort of a gift in and of itself, though, and he should definitely like what I'm wearing.
2. April: 1960 Enid Collins handbag/jewelry box filled with vintage and semi-precious costume jewelry; also inside, a copy of Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook.
3. Liam: Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer.
4. Grif: Glenlivet Scotch '72. Because not everyone appreciates scotch the way they should.
5. Brody: Prints and Drawings of Kathe Kollwitz, and a local artist--a Barbara Mink painting.
6. Jack: Shakespeare; complete works, and a Thanksgiving cupcake, since he was MIA for the dinner.
7. Wes & Tad: It Might Get Loud on DVD; a huge tray of vodka cupcakes, since those went over well last time. I miss my boys!
8. Martel: Les Fleurs du Mal and Baudelaire's Complete Poems; additionally, a lengthy letter of gratitude for recent events.
9. Candice: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.
10. Alex: Greek Apulian lekythos, 4th century BC.
11. Hathaway, wherever he may be: Black Monk Time, Os Mutantes, and Just Another Day Diamond.
12. Bruce Tom: Halway Gula Zerd, which is a Kurdish dessert I've only just learned, made with yellow rose petals, sugar, and almonds, and Mamiya Polaroid pack film holder to enable previewing images to verify composition and lighting.
13. Ellie: Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners.
14. Daddy: Kindle wireless reading device.
15. Berna: A wine rack because I am a good stepdaughter, dammit.
16. Asli: iPod sound mixer.
17. Emir: Stock car ridealong.
18. Zeki: Foosball table (which will probably get shared, but he can keep it in his room).
19. Huan: Pink Cadillac and Chewnel dog toys.
20. Firya Soltanzadeh: Bells of Speech by Nazand Begikhani. Maybe. They probably don't even know who I am, and it might come across too secular to give a Christmas gift. I don't know if I should send this one. Especially with how terrible my reputation must be on that side of the family if they have any idea. I just don't know...but I'd like to find out. I should be close to at least one side of my family, and I was raised closer to the Kurdish ways than Alevi.