• Awesome thing of the week: German machine vends books in exchange for unwanted presents.
• Photo series of the week: Go Inside Son Doong, The World’s Largest Cave. It’s Magnificent. It’s so big it has its own jungle and river.
• Funny of the week: If Cities Were Your Boyfriend.
• The Bones of the Wawel Dragon. Real bones decorating this Polish cathedral are said to have belonged to a dragon.
• Why you should always buy the men’s version of almost anything. “Items marketed to girls and women cost an average 7 percent more than similar products aimed at boys and men.”
• Research Confirms a Link between Intelligence and Life Expectancy. Color me unsurprised.
• Why ’80s Babies Are Different Than Other Millennials. “We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it’s given us a unique perspective that’s half analog old school and half digital new school.”
• The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom. I am definitely an outlier, then. I live 1,233 miles from my mom.
• Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer. “Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.”
• IBM’s Watson computer has branched out into social media consulting.

Things of Note:

I have dubbed this most recent holiday Christmas: The Gadgeting. First I won a Fire tablet and a new Keurig at the hubs’ work party. Then Christmas morning I joyfully unwrapped a Silhouette Cameo from my mom, and a Kitchenaid stand mixer from my wonderful husband. !!! To say I am excited about all of these new gadgets would be a huge understatement. I’ve already put all of them to use, though my mind is bursting with ways I can use the Cameo, and my tummy rumbling for things I can make with the Kitchenaid. Aside from the test runs on each (a faux invite on the former, and fresh focaccia bread in the latter), I almost have too many ideas that I don’t know where to start. But if that’s any indication, then 2016 is going to be creatively and culinarily productive!

Aside from gift unwrapping, it was a good foodie Christmas. We did a lamb roast and had German Christmas wine for Christmas dinner, there were picadillo empanadas over the weekend, and we tried out the chocolate making kit Ian’s parents got us. We also went and saw the new Star Wars movie. Aside from that, sadly, Ian had to go into work a lot Saturday and Sunday, so most of my 4-day Christmas weekend was spent solo. But, as mentioned, I had plenty of new gadgets to occupy my time and attention, so I survived. 🙂

How was your holiday? Did you unwrap anything unexpected and exciting?