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Love: My friend Lisa's idea, from her blog Picnic, for inexpensive, stylish present wrapping:  brown paper bag + binder clip + any wintery Instagram picture. This is especially brilliant for people like myself whose presents tend to look like they were wrapped by a small child, or perhaps even an animal lacking opposable thumbs. 

Like: This always reliable, always delicious Smoked Salmon Dip from Bon Appetit, for any holiday cocktail party.

Smoked Salmon Dip Recipe

Discovery: Some of my favorite gift ideas for the year...

For the geek, any (all?) of these Star Wars prints from etsy's CONCEPCIONSTUDIOS. 

For ladies/readers, these lovely versions of the chick canon, sold at Anthropologie.

For the entertainer, monogrammed cocktail napkins from Mark & Graham, in the typewriter font.

For me (hopefully), some new rain gear: a Pendleton umbrella and L.L. Bean Maine hunting boots, based on their original 1912 model.

Obsession: My new favorite weeknight dinner - Eggs with Chickpeas, Spinach and Tomato - which is as easy as it is comforting during this hectic holiday month. Bonus: it's healthy too.

Recipe here.

Complaint: Stella's, not mine: that we only have "totally, completely not-exciting" strands of white lights decorating the trees in front of our house.  She is deeply disappointed that we haven't gone full Christmas Wonderland like the houses on Alameda's Thompson Ave, who've been putting on a show every December since 1938 (save for during World War II mandatory blackouts), and where we went to walk around and mail her Santa letter last weekend.  For my part, I'm glad that other people go for it, so I don't have to.

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Love: My lovely and amazing father, Terence Evans, aka T, who passed away quite suddenly a year ago this Friday.  I've got a pretty big hole in my life and my heart now, and am only just beginning to comprehend the finality of the loss.  The best way to fill the void is to remember, so I love it when my friends who knew him bring T up, and the old stories and memories are trotted out. 

Like: The orange movie theater marquee letter I bought on etsy and keep in our kitchen as a reminder of the great man.

Discovery: My Sopranos- and Green Bay Packers-loving guy's-guy of a dad had a softer side.  One compelling piece of evidence: his deep love of David Lean's epic romance-cum-historical drama Dr. Zhivago. (T might have appreciated The Selby's recent train trip from Paris to Shanghai on behalf of Louis Vuitton, which involved many days in Russia, a more glamourous version of the horrible train ride Zhivago and his family take as they flee Moscow for a cottage in the Urals.)
The Selby Part 1    The Selby Part 2

Obsession: T was a Democrat through and through, but he couldn't help but find constant amusement in Howard Dean's self-destructive 2004 Iowa Caucus election night speech.  Dad bought a novelty "Scream the Dream" bottle opener which plays the meltdown speech every. single. time. you. open. a. bottle. The opener, still going strong, is my fondest inheritance and makes me smile whenever I use it.

Complaint:  With T gone, and my mom moved to Seattle, where my sister lives, I miss Milwaukee. It's strange to no longer have a place or family to return to in the city you grew up in and visited regularly, for decades. 

When will I ever see its (modest) skyline and lovely lakefront?      

When will I walk through Lake Park then down to the lakefront, looking at all the big houses on Terrace, Wahl and Lake Drive along the way?

When will I catch a movie at The Oriental Theater? Bowl and drink next door at Landmark with Admiral Ackbar (David) and Big Sal (Erich)?

Count mullets and mesh shirts in the crowd at Summerfest?

Eat greasy but delicious Mexican at Conejitos or a burger and frozen custard at Kopps?

Go to that antiques store I liked in the Third Ward? 

Spend an afternoon at my beloved Milwaukee Public Museum amidst the dioramas?  

Milwaukee, I sure hope I don't lose you too.

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Love: My Dad, Terence T. Evans, known to many as T. He is, in many ways, the inspiration for this blog as he has always been a big maker of lists of all sorts. T is a great man - a guy who grew up dirt poor with a single mother, made it to college on a track scholarship, went to law school, and ultimately became a federal appeals court judge. What everyone who knows him will tell you, though, is that what makes him a great man is not just his many accomplishments but who he is as a human being. He's the kind of guy who, for example, when at Ikea winds up helping strangers load their cars up. Spend four minutes with him and he'll know where you're from and some interesting things about you. He's special, and I'm lucky to be his daughter. (He also comes highly recommended as a husband and grandfather.)

Like: Patatas Bravas y Chorizo - T's favorite dish at his favorite restaurant, La Merenda.

Discovery: One day in 1979, when T was in Chicago for work, he walked by a record store playing a new sort of music he'd never heard before. He went in, asked what it was, picked up the record, and that night we became the first white kids in Milwaukee to listen to Rapper's Delight.

Obsession: The Godfather 1 and 2, T's favorite movies (and in my personal Top Ten as well). Over the years, he has hosted many a "Festa Corleone" - Godfather-watching marathons accompanied by pasta. He also created The Godfather Test which included a wide range of trivia questions, including "what's the name of Solozzo's driver?" and fill-in-the-blanks like "take the __ leave the __."

Complaint: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, which T has just been diagnosed with. (Ironically, Marlon Brando had IPF too.) It's a progressive lung disease that often has no known causes - my Dad never smoked - and for which there is no treatment. All the "how can this happen to our family" "life's not fair" sentiments that we have been so lucky to avoid for decades have become painfully real. I'll be by T's side every step of the way.