The new year has arrived and so has my new planner. Being a productivity nerd, I'm sort of really picky about the planner I use. Japan was a magical land of small, functional and incredibly cute planners, but here in the U.S. it's been hard to find candidates matching all three criteria. Last year I modified "incredibly cute" to "classically attractive" and went with a trusty Moleskine. But today I was super excited to open up my mailbox and find the Little Otsu planner I ordered for 2009.

It's even better-looking in person, the hand-drawing and lettering making every page unique. And there are pages for writing down movies you want to see, books you want to read, music you want to listen to and websites you want to visit. So handy! Usually I'm resistant to dateless calendars, but this planner is so great in every other way, I don't mind filling in all the info. Anything for my slim, functional and incredibly cute Little Otsu planner.

In other holiday wrap-up news, I just barely made it into Seattle for Christmas after two canceled flights and a night in Denver. Ugh. Once I arrived, though, I had a relaxing five days of snow, family and cross-stitching (project to be revealed later).

Back in LA, I attended a brilliantly conceived party crawl for New Year's Eve, with hour-long stops at four houses, each serving different food and drinks, on a walkable route starting in Los Feliz and ending in Silver Lake. While walking we all jammed to the tunes coming from a giant boom box one of the organizers had bought at a Goodwill. I made desserts for the last stop: Guinness gingerbread cupcakes with lemon-cream cheese frosting and a caramel, cranberry and almond tart. One drunker reveler told me she kind of hated me because they were so good and another told me she kind of loved me because they were so good. I'd call that a success.