I tend to do- with my covert pods of friends- um, I suggest, like either White Elephant or Secret Santa so that we don’t have to, like, all buy each other gifts, which is helpful.
But I usually buy gifts for at least my direct family. And yeah, I always spent too much.

Taylor:
[1:01] Yeah, I feel like doing something like a White Elephant or like a thrift store find kind of thing is always fun, because you can find the weirdest shit at thrift stores, which are, like, fun gifts to give because,
you know, it’s like, you would never normally- like normally you’d just be like “this is a stupid fucking rabbit figurine” but for some reason, it’s hilarious when you give it to somebody else.

Totally.

Taylor: But that and I have a ton of candle making shit. So if you want to come over and make candles as gifts, you’re welcome to.

Maggie:
[1:30] I was really into cross stitching there for a little while.

Taylor:
[1:35] I wanna learn how to cross…okay…

Maggie:
I can show you…

Taylor:
we’re going to offline about this because I have a thing I’ve been wanting to cross-stitch, and I- I’m like, too intimidated by it. So I need I might need your help.

Becca:
[1:47] Cool. Last year for Christmas, we- my family- we did a homemade Christmas.
Um, and it was so fucking cool. And I did kind of run into that where I spent, like, a lot of money on getting the stuff cause I made, like, um, infused olive oils and homemade liqueurs, those were my gifts.

Taylor:
[2:06] Oh, they were amazing.

Becca:
[2:07] Thank you! It was so much fun too. I might just do that again. It was so much fun.

Maggie:
[2:11] Can I steal? Can I come like, do this with you and steal it and give this to my family as gifts?

Becca:
[2:13] Yeah, 100%. Because everyone really liked it.
Um, but then, like the stuff I got was really cool. Like my brother picked up crocheting saying just for Christmas, because he wanted to make stuff and he made this like, cool.
fucking like, shopping bag, like stuff you put, like a bag you’d put produce in, that’s really like net-y. It’s really cool. I don’t know, it was really fun. Side B.

Maggie:
[2:36] I like that. I love that, actually.

Jewels:
[2:40] I don’t think anyone can help me with my complete failure of gift giving. I am…so I was actually thinking about this today about how good y’all are at gift giving and that I am literally the worst when it comes to doing anything around an occasion, like a fixed occasion. And I think at least Maggie knows this, but every few years, or maybe every year for a few years I have tried to set a New Year’s resolution to go all out for, like, one major holiday a month and like host a party and do all these things. And I have failed out of the gate every every single year.

Maggie:
[3:19] I didn’t- I didn’t realize it was every month. I knew, I thought it was like twice a year. Maybe.

Jewels:
[3:22] Or maybe it was like every major holiday, so that’s probably like two out of every three months. There’s one of those, and I’ve just failed miserably.

[3:32] I cannot even like-

Maggie:
[3:32] You could blame a lot of this on Covid this year.

Becca:
100%

Jewels:
I can’t…Well, I didn’t set the resolution this year. The one year I could have gotten away with this Scot-free, I finally gave up. But I feel like, that…even though my intention is like, I would like to celebrate these sort of passings of seasons and things like that and I have said the intention and I still fail, and then gift giving is just another extension of that. But I feel like I- life is just running by so fast, and I’m keeping myself so busy that even if I want to do things, I’m not getting around to it. And like, gift giving is one of those things. But like, if I see something that makes me think, Oh, so and so would love this or I know that they were talking about this, I buy it. But I also feel like those opportunities are getting more and more rare because we all buy whatever we want immediately, So trying to find like, those little opportunities where you’re like, “oh, so and so would love this”- so and so has probably already bought it for themself at this point, because we just get on Amazon. So I’m just, I’m floundering. I have no idea. Luckily, I have failed at gifts for so long that almost no one like my family and stuff don’t expect them from me.

Maggie:
[4:45] I had a really brilliant idea because my garden was doing well there for a while, especially my herb garden, that I was going to make homemade, like, spice kits for people.

Becca:
[4:55] Oh, that’s a good idea.

Maggie:
[4:56] But do you know how many herbs it takes after you dry them and grind them up? Like I probably grew basil like a shit ton of basil for, like, six months, and then once you dry it and grind it up, it’s not that much.

Maggie:
[5:12] So I was like, well, this is gonna take me, like, 16 years to make one spice kit, so I gave up on that idea.

Jewels
[5:21] I have been keeping a massive stockpile of Xenia flower heads that I’ve dried for seeds that I thought about just giving to friends like one spring comes, like, throw these out.

Becca:
[5:31] Well, that’s a great idea.

Jewels:
[5:35] But that’s not going to solve all of my gift woes.

Taylor:
[5:38] But you bake amazing pies. You could make little mini pies or something.

Jewels:
[5:42] Okay, actually, some of my favorite gifts are consumables, because I’m constantly trying to get rid of stuff in my house.

Taylor:
[5:47] I agree,
right? Yeah.

Jewels:
[5:51] And so, like, I’ve actually felt very spoiled this week.
Becca brought me sunflowers. Taylor brought me cookies.
I’m like all of these consumable things. Say what?

Maggie:
[6:03] I said, y’all making me look bad.

Becca:
[6:04] “I’m forgetting what Maggie brought me.”

Maggie:
[6:07] “I can’t seem to remember what Maggie brought me.”

[6:13] Maggie brings me so much joy all the time, okay.

Becca:
[6:13] Very consumable

[6:18] I run on Joy, so, um..but like, uh

Maggie can just like, drink the beers I left in the fridge.

Taylor:
[6:23] Just like the Disney Kingdom.

Taylor:
[6:37] Yeah,
totally.

Becca:
[6:42] Yes. 100%.

Maggie:
[6:44] I brought you guys like 4 pounds of uncrackable pecans.

Becca:
[6:47] Hell yeah, you did.

Taylor:
[6:48] And we will enjoy that for the rest of our lives because they will never get cracked.

Becca:
[6:53] We got to get a better cracker.

We do. Yeah. The one we have is not adequate.

Maggie:
[6:59] I gave some to my dad, and he literally cracked them open with his bare hands. And I was like, “How did you do that?” And he was like, “I grew up with pecans.” and I was like, “that just does not answer the question!”

Becca:
[7:05] Wow.

Taylor:
[7:10] Jesus. He must know, like the pressure points. There’s got to be a secret.

Maggie:
[7:15] I don’t know how he did it, but I was like, “that’s fucking impressive, Dad.”

Becca:
[7:18] I was worried you were going to say his teeth. That’s like, why I winced. That is wild.

Taylor:
[7:20] Yeah.

Maggie:
[7:20] No, like bare hands, just cracked one open.

Taylor:
[7:24] That is so manly.

Maggie:
[7:26] My dad is very manly.

Taylor:
[7:29] Your dad sounds hot. Yeah.

Maggie:
[7:32] Maybe not hot, but definitely manly.

Becca:
[7:35] Um, okay, So… financial goals for you was maybe budgeting for holidays?

Maggie:
[7:40] Yeah, sort of getting an idea of how to do that without spending too much money, which who knows?

Becca:
[7:44] Nice.

Jewels:
[7:46] And it sounds like going and host…Becca’s going to host a party where we can make things for family.

Maggie:
[7:52] Yeah, but she admitted that that wasn’t necessarily cheap.

Taylor:
[7:52] Mhm.
What was the most expensive part of that?

Becca:
[7:57] Just- and it wasn’t-

the oil?

Becca: The olive oil, and, like the ever clear and, um, like, high volume, like rum. But not, it is much cheaper, because when I, like ordering the bottles was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be like the glass bottles. But then when you break down how many gifts you’re making, it’s, you’re making, like, dozens of bottles of these things, so it is, like, cheaper.

Um, but you are, It’s still, like a sizeable chunk out of pocket. But you’re able to, like, give- because remember, I made those, like, little, mini liquor bottles, and I could just give them to a bunch of people like Rosalind- a girl, my friend, like, very kindly drove me and Taylor around completely drunk one night, and she got a bottle of liquor in exchange.

Taylor:
[8:42] Yeah, but also, I have a Sam’s Club membership now…

Becca:
[8:46] Yes! You’re so, no, you’re so right. God, we’ve got to fucking go to Sam’s. I can’t wait.

Taylor:
[8:51] We got to go to Sam’s. We can get some bulk…

You going to buy some bulk oil?

Fuck yeah, we’ll bulk buy olive oil like fucking weirdos.

Maggie:
[8:58] Yeah, Like Sam’s club membership, they don’t limit how many people in your group, right? We can just all go?

Taylor:
[9:02] No, they don’t care.

Maggie:
Perfect.

Becca:
[9:05] I’m so pumped.

Jewels:
[9:05] We all belong to Taylor.

Taylor:
[9:09] Let’s go, ladies. Sam’s trip.

Maggie:
[9:11] I used to make Christmas ornaments when I was a kid, as my gifts to people.

Becca:
[9:14] Oh, that’s very sweet.

Taylor:
[9:15] That’s Yeah, that’s cute. I like that.

Intro-Outro:
[9:19] Welcome to Vaginance. Thanks for listening.