The 9th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Brother, Tickets to Dallas Theater Center

My brother loves theater.  He acted and did tech for several plays in high school, and although he is now majoring in English, he still has that passion for theater that stays with you when developed at an early age.  Dallas Theater Center is producing Dividing the Estate as part of the Horton Foote Festival, and a show I know my brother will love.  And every native Texan will appreciate the by-line “Family Meltdown: Texas-Style”.

Tickets start at $15.  I got my brother 2 tickets, so that’s another gift complete for $30!

Tip:  Youth tickets (ages 18 and younger) are $15 for any seat as long as they are accompanied by an adult ticket.  Perfect for families!

8th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Sister-In-Law, A Book from the Nasher Sculpture Center Store

My sister-in-law is a bit tough to shop for.  She is entirely her own person, very outgoing, has a unique style and approach to life.  I know she loves to journal, but wasn’t completely satisfied with the thought of just getting her a book of blank pages.    I was browsing through the store at the Nasher Sculpture Center, exploring all the books and cleverly fun items they have, and came across a book that was just perfect.  It’s entitled Everything That Can Happen in A Day and the title pretty much says it all.  It’s a book that has a kind of “challenge” on each page, from things that just you will notice to things that are kind of an interesting psychological experiment.  A sample of the challenges:

“Leave a bouquet of flowers in a taxi for the next person.”

“Locate the exact opposite side of the earth from where you are now.  Make a photograph pointing to this location on a map.  Hang this on your wall to remind you where the farthest distance away from you on earth is.”

“In a public place, line up ten oranges and leave them.”

“Spend an entire day not knowing what time it is.”

There is one challenge per page, plus space to leave your own notes (or pictures of people’s reactions!).   It just seemed like the perfect book for someone who likes to live life to the fullest.

The book is $27.95 at the Nasher Sculpture Center Store.  I also got her a pen that has a 7-year ink supply to use to take notes in the book ($7.95).  That brings this gift’s total to $35.90.

7th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Aunt & Uncle, Tickets to Arts & Letters Live

My aunt and uncle are big public radio listeners.  I wanted to get them something related to public radio, but the added challenge of something from the Dallas Arts District made me think that maybe I had met my gift match.  Luckily, the Dallas Museum of Art just announced  their 20th Anniversary season of Arts and Letters Live, and since they always offer up plenty of public radio personalities and contributors, I thought I’d  search for their perfect gift here. I had a lot to choose from, and ended up settling on tickets to a lecture with one of my aunt and uncle’s favorites: Julie Burstein, creator of Studio 360. It’s a great program you can catch on KERA Saturdays at 1 PM that features insights into the minds of writers, artists, and creativity in general.  She’ll be promoting her new book Spark: How Creativity Works during the lecture and will be tailoring some of the material to reflect interviews with artists who have work exhibited in the Dallas Museum of Art’s collections along with other influential authors, some of whom have previously been part of the Arts & Letters Live series.  The lecture is at the Horchow Auditorium inside the Dallas Museum of Art on February 22.

Tickets are $30 a piece for a total of $60 altogether.  A  bit over my budget, but then as I calculated in the last budget, I have an extra $30 to work with that I saved on other gifts.

7th gift bought and checked off the list!

The 6th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Cousin, A Dallas Arts District Membership

My cousin recently moved back to Dallas after being away at college for the past four years.  And a lot has happened in the Dallas Arts District recently that she’s missed.  So the perfect gift for her would be something that gave her a taste of everything in the Dallas Arts District and helped her become more familiar with the district and the district’s organizations.  A Dallas Arts District Membership offers an event each month, from private museum tours and briefings about upcoming projects to tickets to performances, providing a great overall experience of the Dallas Arts District.

I got her an “Individual Membership”, which was $65.  Which reminds me that this might be a good time to recap our gifts so far.

Gifts Completed:

1. Younger Sister – Coloring Mat from the Lotus Shop at the Crow Collection of Asian Art – $27
2. Parents – Tickets to TITAS’s production of KODO Drummers of Japan – $38
3. In-Laws – Tamales from Jorge’s – $40
4. Older Sister – Tickets to the Dallas Museum of Art’s Gaultier Exhibit – $40
5. Husband – Tickets to the AT&T Performing Arts Center Lexus Broadway Series production of Young Frankenstein – $60
6. Cousin – Dallas Arts District Membership – $65

I’ve been trying to stay under $50 per person, and on average so far I’ve spent $45 per person.  With the money I saved on some of the gifts, I am actually $30 under budget!

Gifts Remaining:

1. Brother-In-Law
2. Sister-In-Law
3. Brother
4. Aunt & Uncle
5. Grandparents
6. Best Friend

On to more shopping!

5th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Husband, Young Frankenstein Tickets

My husband loves Mel Brooks films.  When they made The Producers into a movie musical,  it was the first time he ever volunteered to go see a musical – that’s usually something I have to bribe him to do!  So since he’s heard that the AT&T Performing Arts Center Lexus Broadway Series will be presenting Young Frankenstein, he hasn’t stopped dropping hints about what he wants for Christmas.  Of course, I pretend not to notice and keep suggesting a nice button-down shirt and tie just to keep him guessing, even though I have already bought the tickets.  Hey, I want it to be at least kind of a surprise!

Tip:  Tickets for weekday performances cost less than weekend performances.  I was able to get two tickets in the upper level (Starlight Circle) for $30 each for a Thursday evening performance, putting me just a little over my budget (which, since I’ve been under budget for pretty much all my other gifts, is no problem).

5th gift is complete, a total of $60 spent! Next, I have to figure out what to get my brother-in-law!

4th Day of Christmas: A Gift for My Older Sister, Tickets to Fashion!

When I heard that the Dallas Museum of Art would be presenting the exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, I knew that the search was done for my older sister’s Christmas gift.  My older sister absolutely loves fashion, always sporting a combination of classic attire with the latest trends.  She is our family go-to person for fashion advice and is always on hand for any major occasion to make sure we meet her fashion approval.  So tickets to see the Gaultier exhibit are the perfect gift for her!  The exhibit runs from November 13, 2011 through February 12, 2012, and Dallas is one of only two cities in the U.S. on the tour (the other city is San Francisco).  The Dallas Museum of Art has a great video posted that features an interview with Jean Paul Gaultier, which you can view below.

Tickets to the exhibit are $20 for weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and $16 for weekdays.  Discounted tickets are available for students, seniors, military and groups of 10 or more.  Individual tickets to the exhibit aren’t available for purchase yet, so I’ll make up a cute “IOU” and get two tickets when they go on sale.  (UPDATE: Tickets for the exhibit go on sale in April!)

So my 4th gift is complete!  And we’re still under budget at $40 for this gift!

3rd Day of Christmas: Tamales from Jorge’s for My In-Laws

My in-laws live out of state, so I thought it would be a great idea to bring something to contribute to Christmas dinner (and bring them a delicious taste of Texas!).  Jorge’s at One Arts Plaza makes hand-made tamales they are selling for the holidays for $20 per dozen, inclduing pork or banana leaf tamales with a choice of Pipen-pumkin, Rajas-shreded poblano peppers, onions & cheese or chicken.  I got a mix of two dozen to bring to my in-laws.

Now I can check the 3rd gift off my list!  Two dozen tamales for my in-laws, total cost at $40.