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• j. crew quarter zip: I gave this to my dad Christmas morning, and he wore it for Christmas dinner. he loved the weight of it and said it’s very comfortable! (originally $98, on sale for $36 with code YAY2022 at time of posting)

• brightland olive oil: we got the set of 4 for someone else, but since this was a brand we’d wanted to try for a while, we got “the luminous capsule” for ourselves (champagne vinegar, olive oil, and california orange blossom honey). pricey, but so so so good.

• pet portrait: this is actually something I’d wanted to do for my parents for a while, but after losing my other childhood dog this year, I knew this was definitely the way to go. made for a teary Christmas morning, but a beautiful gift we’ll always treasure.

• gifts from our registry: so even though we aren’t actually receiving some of these yet, it’s cool to see a few things getting checked off of our registry and envisioning everything together has me feeling extra sentimental. especially now that it’s officially our wedding year! seeing the kitchen-aid get crossed off was a definite 2021 highlight!

• new joy-cons + switch skin: i was lucky to get the animal crossing edition switch when it first came out, and still love the native joy-con colors that came with it. but I wanted my whole switch to be one uniform color, so I ordered a new vinyl skin! of course, in my favorite neutral palette. my joy-cons have been acting up for quite some time now, and I’d mentioned it in passing to my fiancé a few times when we’d game together. and to my surprise, under the tree Christmas morning was a new set of joy-cons! I wasted no time in wrapping them in the vinyl and am super happy with my “new” switch.

• sézane scarf: my mom loves all things french, and who doesn’t love a good scarf?? the color and quality were perfect, and she loved the gift!

• nanoleaf: perfect for the gamer, D had these put up and synced over his setup by the end of Christmas night.

• honorable mention: little words project + monica vinader bracelets. there was apparently an unspoken theme for Christmas this year - and within the immediate and extended family we wound up gifting each other bracelets from both of these brands. big fan of both, and highly recommend!