Lily entered college as an ordinary, fresh-faced teen. A little over a year later, she's home for the holidays, transformed from an enthusiastic meat eater into an outspoken vegan hippie, complete with patchouli perfume and a new hobby of making and selling her own patchwork clothing. She's developed a keen interest in body modification and sports three new tattoos, piercings in various unmentionable places, and is currently stretching her earlobes into what her mother calls "disgusting replicas of what they used to be." She's always enjoyed nature but since entering vegan-hood has come to appreciate all things living — hence the sudden interest in camping. She loves all music — in particular, any acts classified as "jam band" — except for country, which she has come to hate with an intense passion because of the Toby Keith song (she's so over the war). And like her mother and her grandmother, she's someone everyone likes to buy for.
Carved hardwood earplugs
Chris thinks it's so cool his sister's no longer a drone. He wants to support her new lifestyle, so (despite his parents), he sent for these attention-getting items, made by the Kalimantan Dayak of Borneo.
$80/pair, www.tribalartifacts.com
A dreadlock kit
Joey's gift, picked out by Chris — see above.
$30, www.knottyboy.com/dreadlock_kits.htm
A gift basket made by Mom
Three scented palm wax (i.e., mostly chemical free) candles (Love, Mystique, Freedom) $7.49 each; Six-Pack of Blu Creek Herbal Ale, $8.99; 40 grams of Nag Champa Incense, $7.49; a vegan cookbook (The Voluptuous Vegan, by Myra Kornfeld), $18; a bottle of Life Essence multivitamins (because Mom doesn't believe that her daughter can possibly get enough nutrients without eating meat and its byproducts), 120 tablets for $32.99; a bag of organic soy nuts, $2.99; and two natural energy bars, $1.99 each.
Nature's Harvest, 1021 N. MacDill Ave., Tampa
A bottle of Honey Gentle Water
Mild, alcohol-free scented water. Lily suspects this one's from Sheila, but she'd never tell.
$28, L'Occitane, International Plaza, Tampa.
Soul food
Leave it to Uncle Robert to pay attention to Lily's spiritual side: Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge/A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution by Terrence McKenna ($18.95) and a "Talisman for Communication w/Animals" silver pendant ($22). He'd never be caught dead with this stuff himself, but he knows his niece.
Green Dragon Books, 1813 Seventh Ave. E., Ybor City.
Tickets to the New Year's Eve party at Skipper's Smokehouse
The Damon Fowler Group and Sawgrass Flats are on the New Year's bill. This one's a gift from Grandma, who hopes she'll be invited to go along.
$40 a pair, www.skipperssmokehouse.com
Sewing stuff
Dad took Mom's suggestion and bought Lily a Janome JS1008 Sewing Machine ($159, A Creative Design Shop, 2140 Ninth Ave. N., St. Petersburg) and a $100 gift certificate from Jo-Ann Fabrics (2500 66th St. N., St. Petersburg).
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2004.