My Christmas shopping may be long over, but my Etsy love continues unabated. Here are a couple of recent sellers whose items I’ve coveted:

• I couldn’t resist the tentacle necklaces I found at bunny X productions. I also love the tiny SWAKtopus creatures, in particular the zombie and chaos versions.
• The Mixed Species shop is not to be missed. While the beef jerky underwear was a little out of my holiday price range, I passed out packets of You Park Like Shit static clings as stocking stuffers, and they were well received.
• Cyberoptix, of Skinny Puppy tour costume fame, can be found on Etsy too. I got a Sharp Dressed tie for Chris, but it was excruciatingly difficult to pick just the one.
• I haven’t yet ordered anything from Maggie C. Mowery, but I’ve got my eye on several of her items. Check out the skull buttons.
• And finally, I picked up a set of these mushroom pushpins from The Cupcake Girls and they’re just as cute as they look in the photos, in case you were wondering.

Today’s my last day at the office until next week, when I’ll be back from my short but much-needed Christmas break. Most of my shopping has been done for a while now, so from here on out it’s pretty much all fun, with the possible exception of many hours of driving between here and Massachusetts over the next week or so.

Every year I spend so much time trying to think of the perfect present for each person on my list that I often forget I usually get presents too, and so far this year is no exception. My friends and family have proven over the years that they know my taste very well, but it never ceases to surprise me when they demonstrate this talent by finding the coolest things in the world that I never would have thought of looking for on my own. Or maybe it just means I’m predictable. Either way, really.

I don’t think there’s anyone who knows me and does not yet realize I am a nerd. Nevertheless, I am going to admit something to you that makes me a nerd even by the standards of other nerds. And it is this: I am a huge sucker for the holiday content in World of Warcraft. Although it’s almost a year ago now since I stopped playing much WoW at all, I still make a point of keeping my game patched and my subscription active, and one of the reasons for that is my shameful love for the goofy holiday shit. (Another is that Chris and I have a pair of low-level alts we like to play together.)

Anyway, here is some evidence of my problem for your consideration. (Those of you who don’t play Warcraft can safely avert your eyes.) Last December I did tons of instance runs getting red and green Santa hats for myself and my friends. Then in January, I feverishly leveled my newborn hunter so she could pick up some of the seasonal engineering recipes before the Lunar Festival event ended. This fall, I logged in at least twice a day on three different characters to collect Brewfest tickets. But not just for my regular characters: I am that person whose bank alt is decked out in lederhosen. Hallow’s End was much the same - I have so many goddamn Weighted Jack-o’-Lanterns and Hallowed Wands that I have no fear at all of running out before next October. In fact, I have an entire 18-slot bag in my main bank devoted specifically to miscellaneous holiday items - and this is distinct from the 18-slot bag reserved for non-combat pets. This doesn’t even begin to cover the non-soulbound stuff sitting on bank alts.

So there it is. Not only am I the grown adult who has seen every Pokémon movie to date, I’m the one who will be logging in early tomorrow to see the Winter Veil content go up. Speaking of which, does anyone know where those new tailoring patterns come from?

You know that thing where you wake up on, say, a Tuesday morning and think it’s Friday? And it doesn’t stop there, so that your whole day becomes a chain of little disappointments as you continually realize that no, it isn’t Friday?

Yeah, every day for the past couple of weeks has been like that. I think it’s a December thing - my Christmas shopping has been more or less done since Thanksgiving, and I’m so completely ready for a few days off that I keep tricking myself into thinking the holiday break starts tomorrow. When confronted with the awful realization that it’s still only the 11th and tomorrow is not even a regular Saturday, I console myself by adding more movies to my Netflix queue (for lazy post-Christmas watching) and admiring yet more things on Etsy that I ought not to buy.

Anthony (Ant to his friends and baristas) is absolutely correct about my recent Etsy obsession. I spend more time than I care to say browsing the listings there, most recently in search of the perfect scarf. I didn’t find anyone already selling it, but I did find an awesome seller who makes custom knit scarves. A couple emails later, my neck is protected from the cold and snow by the scarf of perfection. What you won’t understand from that photo is exactly how soft and non-itchy it is, and how it goes with almost everything I own. (This may be related to the fact that almost everything I own is gray or black.)

My other favorite Etsy finds so far include glow in the dark Pac-Man coasters, awesome and inexpensive gift tags to be distributed shortly, and this wicked cool ceramic pendant. I have not, however, found the perfect girl for Anthony. Yet.