The Monday, Monday post is late as usual, but better late than never, right? Turns out we didn’t get the massive snow “event” that everyone wanted, but schools are still closed, the subways are still not running, and we have a lovely day of winter wonderland-ness to experience.

When you’re tired of snowball fights and sledding, if that’s even possible, here are a few ideas of things to do:

Watch Ernest and Celestine, a lovely Oscar-nominated animated feature about the unlikely friendship between a bear and a mouse. With the voices of Forest Whitacker, Lauren Becall and Jeffrey Wright, you can’t really go wrong.

Get a jump on Valentine’s Day (and use some of that felt you have lying around) by weaving some felt heart baskets.

Make an herbal vinegar tincture to get rid of that lingering cold. You probably have all of the ingredients in your cupboard already!

ok this post is being interrupted in order to go play outside. More later…

I’m back, it’s a day later, and while the world has returned to normal (with everybody complaining about the storm’s poor showing) there are still a few things I’d like to add to this post. Just in case a real storm hits and we really need to hunker down.

The NY Times served up a cooking-for-the-storm playlist of recipes that is great even when the sun is shining…

Curl up with your kids and read them a great book. Like Alice in Wonderland, preferably the delicately psychedelic edition illustrated by Yayoi Kusama.

Last but not least, run over to Zero Maria Cornejo and buy her alpaca “Trek” pullover and never be cold again. And make it quick because the sale ends on Sunday.

Sorry this is coming to you on a Tuesday, but I’m on vacation, so sue me.

Please please enjoy and savor these last few days of 2014. And if you need to unwind in front of your screen, may these year end lists provide you with the procrastination you so richly deserve.

For starters, you might enjoy checking out 538′s scientific compilation and analysis of all of the Best Of lists it could find.

To keep you on your current events toes, The Atlantic has put together a quiz to test you on the year’s most memorable headlines.

One should never underestimate the power of good design. Especially when it comes to the supposedly-dying-but-clearly-still-thriving world of book publishing. Here are the 50 best book covers for 2014 according to The Casual Optimist.

And while we’re on the topic of books, check out this list of the best children’s picture books of 2014.

Don’t miss Saveur’s Best Food Blogs of 2014, so you know where to look for culinary inspiration in 2015.

Of course, no compendium of lists would be complete without an entry from the master of all listmakers, Flavorwire. Here’s their summation of 2014′s best films, complete with trailers in case you don’t believe them.

And last but far from least, The Fader’s Listmania 2014 always has some great lists chronicling all sorts of moments from pop culture, both great and small.

Watch Jimmy Fallon and the roots don Xmas sweaters, pick up some toy instruments and join Mariah singing “All I want for Christmas.” I will be very worried about you if you are not smiling by the end of the song.

Stop obsessing over what you haven’t done (what am I gonna get my mother-in-law?) and think about the future instead by picking up a 2015 calendar. Flavorwire has a list of some great ones to choose from.

Feeling a bit shattered by lack of sleep and overabundance of consumption (of alcohol, sugar, food in general)? Evidently, potassium broth is the answer. I have made a big batch and am on day 3 of drinking the stuff (which actually tastes good!) So far I am winning the battle against my impending cold, so it must be working.

And then once you’ve gotten yourself all healthy and whatnot, go check out these brunch recipes on the New York Times’ Cooking site and slide back down into the land of indulgence one last time in 2014.

Go to the biggest movie theater you can find and watch The Hobbit. Come on, you know you’re dying to see it.

Or if you prefer live entertainment, how about checking out Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall?

Find a space for quiet contemplation in Douglass Gordon’s instalation at the Park Avenue Armory. Called tears become… streams become…, the show transforms the mammoth space into an immense reflective pool in the midst of which sit two pianos. Pianist Helene Grimauld performs at night… by day a player piano makes eerie music of it’s own.

Now that you have (hopefully) taken advantage of some of the Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday deals, why not take some of the cash you just saved and give it to some people who are trying to make the world a better place? The are countless organizations doing incredible work all over the world that need our help. Here are a few that you might not have heard about to get your juices flowing:

So what is this #Giving Tuesday thing, anyway?

Help Zam Zam Water bring fresh water to underdeveloped communities in Yemen, Afghanistan and Rwanda.

In Malawi, fewer than 25% of girls finish primary school, largely because schools are located so far from their homes. With bikes, they can travel to school safely and get the education they need. Help GirlUp.org make it happen.

Lets teach our kids the importance of learning how to give back to our communities. Check out this curriculum guide for integrating philanthropy into our everyday activities and pass it on to the educators in your lives.

Radio is the new Internet. Help the good people at Heritage Radio Network promote the value of whole foods and continue to be the most progressive voice for food and culture radio in America.

Help Film Biz Recycling save thousands of movie props from being tossed into land fills. You can even pay them a visit and do some holiday shopping at the same time!

Through DonorsChoose.org, teachers post proposals for various needs (iPads, art supplies, cash for a field trip…) and then you donate to whichever projects you’d like. You get notes from the kids and eternal life in their hearts, they get the materials they need for a richer education. Win win.

As if I didn’t need any more fodder for my conspiracy theory dossier, here’s a piece about the letter that the FBI wrote (while pretending to be a rabid ex-fan) to Martin Luther King, Jr suggesting he kill himself.

Reading that piece got me all riled up, so I decided to check my e mail. My husband sent me this link to Opening Ceremony’s new collab with Intel: a glamorous wristwatch/smartphone. “Why not just get an implant and call it a day?” I wonder out loud to myself.

So in a desperate attempt to turn my attention away from the fact that we are all just drones-in-waiting and towards something more wholesome, I go to Etsy. Etsy UK, actually. I figure it’ll be less commercial. There I find this super cute idea for holiday spice biscuits that hang out on the rim of your mug.

Which of course gets me all freaked out about the holidays. Suddenly I feel horribly behind, and we’re over a month away from the big day. In order to help ease myself off of that ledge, I go for more practical concerns (aka Thanksgiving) and decide to get lost in the NY Times Cooking’s exhaustive guide to the holiday. We’ve got vegans joining this year, so the tried and true ain’t gonna hold.

A person could meander around for hours on that site. Maybe I should just get practical and prepare some of Julia Moskin’s cranberry sauce, as it’s one of the few things you can make way ahead that will still be delicious next Thursday.

Or maybe I should get even more practical and make a quick brine for the pork chops I have in the fridge waiting to be transformed into dinner.

Or I could just wander on over to the Zero Maria Cornejo webstore and fantasize about this peacoat which really should be in my closet even though I have no pressing need for more outerwear…

Here’s a friendly and encouraging post about what you need to start scrapbooking (which would be a great thing for me to do with all of my millions of photos and little scraps of paper).

I could always take playing with cars to a whole new level like Chris Burden did for his piece Metropolis II on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

I could actually open up the Tassajara Bread Book that I bought 2 years ago and begin baking bread in earnest. Hell, I could even make more of that no-knead bread Mark Bittman made so popular a few years back.

For the upcoming holiday season, I could hand make all sorts of incredible, useful gifts that don’t take up very much space whilst greatly adding to the quality of life of the receiver. Like these home made, all-natural, whole food vitamin C pills. Who doesn’t want those?

And I actually think I am going to make some of these gold dipped wooden candle holders (so hopefully all of my friends/family are too busy to really pay attention to this post and as such will be surprised when they receive one of these babies as a gift this year).

The minimalists have some really good advice on how and why to start a blog, which is the ultimate current cultural pastime, if you ask me. I can actually check this one off of my list (hooray!) though I sure do have plenty of room for improvement…

Last week, some guy in France went 207 mph on a bicycle with the help of some rockets he strapped on. I’ll probably never get around to doing something like that, though a girl can dream…