First up, MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone in the antipodes! Hope you’re enjoying the warm weather & having a fantastic day. There is still lots of snow on the ground here & though the sun is out, it sure isn’t warm enough to melt it!

Okay, so I know that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but even if you don’t get into tree-trimming, carols, turkey, etc., it’s a great time to sit back & reflect on the year. Think about the myriad of blessings in your life, how much you’ve achieved & how far you’ve come. Think of all the people in your life who love you, all the amazing things you’ve seen & great songs you’ve listened to. Then pile it all up in your heart & smile!

Here’s my list of lurve for the week… the second-to-last TiLT of 2009!

Giant Gingerbread House Challenge on the Food Network (if they replay it, you must watch, it is aaaaamazing!!!) any & all cake-making shows, the obsession is massive RJD2 the Vogue Paris 2010 calendar (hello naked girls wrapped in strands of lights & covered in Swarovski crystals!) big stacks of reading material having the best boyfriend everrrr listening to Tool after an approximate zillion year hiatus Hank Williams, internet superstar! (I loved that you all loved our snow video so much!) shopping for wrapping paper & assorted accoutrements being the shoe fairy working in my office while The Dish creates magic in the kitchen, gastronomic genius that he is, & it smells sooooo gooooooood! creating new traditions for Christmas (arm triangles & gift ransacking etc.) the Magic Bullet infomercial (I love that creepy old woman with a cigarette in her mouth, WHO CAST HER & what were they thinking?!) having my favourite sandwich delivered right to my door at 2.24 in the morning, New York you are magic! Taurus girls (Chloe & Jazzi!) the fact that John might put “Namaste motherf*cker” on his business card, hahaha! THIS snnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooow new Frye harness boots (voilà) chocolate chip pancakes the way the house suddenly magically filled up with chocolate almond butter cup raw ice-cream from One Lucky Duck dress anticipation! the High Fidelity soundtrack buying le boyf (le boeuf?!) a knitted devil hat (there will be photos, oh yes, there will be photos) people’s reaction to Love & Sequins #7 — everyone is so psyched & I’m so excited that everyone found it so good & useful! the Yas Marina Hotel — “The hotel’s exterior surface is designed as an environmentally responsive skin that by day reflects the sky and surroundings and by night is lit by a full color changing LED lighting system that incorporate video feeds that are transmitted over the entire surface of the building” — ARE YOU KIDDING ME — & I found out about it via yumnaaa — unf unf UNF! I also think Yumna is really cool, check out her blog, it is adorbs Chloe’s snowman poo San Pellegrino Aranciata (officially obsessed, we drink this ish like water even though we know we shouldn’t) listening to weird old Christmas carols Manish Arora (the John Galliano of India!) having this as my wallpaper & I am becoming more & more obsessed with India, I really want to go. Have you been there?

“The joke is on the skeptics, such superstitious self-appointed vigilantes for the suppression of curiosity.” — Deepak Chopra

P.S. Um, wow!