Tickets are $15 each and includes dessert, coffee and drinks.

Proceeds will benefit programs offered by Centre Stage Inc., a performing arts school in Monrovia.

For more information, call (626) 297-4768 or visit www.centrestageinc.com.

            I love her voice, her easy smile, her cute do and effortless style. I love her wisdom and subtle humor. I am thankful for her kindness.

If you see her around town, it would be easy to think, "I could never be like her," "her" being that kind of mom of who is chic and so well put together, maternal and calm, the mom who never raises her voice after calling her children three times (usually to get these hypothetical children to pick something off of the floor or get out of the car while you're holding the car seat with the baby in it as well as a heavy purse.)  

Karen (it doesn't feel right to use her last name in the usual journalistic style), is a mom, wife, daughter and Buddhist priest and teacher. Meeting Karen after reading her book, "Momma Zen," I realized that yes, I could never be like her. And thank God. That's not the point. I can be me. (And why do I suddenly hear Sammy Davis Jr. singing in the background?)

Karen lives in Sierra Madre, in a beautiful home with a century-old Japanese garden that invites serenity. She also does laundry, and picks up after the dog, teases her husband about his new flat screen TV and worries about her daughter and our material world. I know she gets angry and frustrated too, but she has a deep perspective that helps me out every time I visit her site.

            Mine include going through that stack of magazines on the desk and cleaning out my purse (down to the crumbs and gooey things I didn't know were in there.) I also make a list of New Year's resolutions that pertain to me (lose weight, be more cheerful, don't yell at kids) but these get sidetracked soon after the second encore presentation of the Rose Parade.

            Enter Robert Mahar, self-appointed grand poobah of the Junior Society, of which I am a proud member. The society is "dedicated to the proliferation and advancement of better than average kiddie culture and design," which means I get a weekly e-mail on everything from Halloween pumpkins to arts and crafts projects and sales on unique children's items. I love it. (www.juniorsociety.com)

            Mahar, of Los Angeles , is also proprietor of the online shop Mahar Drygoods which offers artisan-created goodies for children and grown-ups who like vintage stuff (count me in). Suffice to say, I'm a Mahar fan, so when he pointed the way recently to a unique campaign, I listened.

            He calls it "pay-it forward/random acts of kindness/secret Santa love."

            Last week marked the second annual World Wide Christmas Toy Drop organized by the Toy Society, am Australian-based group that makes handmade toys and leaves them in public places to be found and given homes by strangers. The project has attracted people from the Netherlands to Greece , Guatemala to Japan .

            Their blog is at www.thetoysociety.blogspot.com.

 "I've become a regular visitor, reading about the various 'toy drops' in places near and far and loving the accounts by those who have discovered and given homes to these toys," Mahar said. "It's such a simple act of kindness and some of the discovery stories are really moving."

Last year, more than 100 toys were made and dropped and the numbers for this year will be out next month. Mahar made his contribution by making a red and white sock elf featured in his shop.

"I left him hanging from the fencing that surrounds a child development center playground in my neighborhood," he said. "The Toy Society has downloadable labels that read simply, 'Take me home, I'm yours!'  and a letter that explains the project and encourage the finders to report back  and let them know the toy has been claimed."

Mahar said people are so ingenious and thoughtful, "not only in the creation of these handmade toys but in their drop locations - everywhere from the safety seat of a frozen shopping cart to the toy hanging out in the manger of a nativity diorama. I can't tell you how much I love this idea."

Me too.

Actually, the three little trees in the front yard have had lights on them all year, and Hubby will connect extension cords to them this week in hopes that not too many mini bulbs have died since last Christmas.

But I've had to say goodbye to my vision of those same trees festooned in lights (I like clear ones) because, 1) I'm not the one doing the light hanging and 2) Hubby says we never have enough lights for three trees. The choice boils down to lighting one tree well or all trees half-brightly.

Between you and me, I think the energy shortage lies with my erstwhile decor-hanger and not the light supply, but we love him anyway.

To all of you who decorate their homes to the rafters, those with motorized snow globes and lit-up Nativity scenes, candy cane lanes and reindeers on your rooftops, bless you. We who spend many a holiday evening cruising neighborhoods, stalking the best decorated streets, thank you.

Elementary parenting stuff made cool.

            After three kids, I know I don't have to have those pee-pee teepee covers to avert diaper changing geysers (a tissue or napkin will do just fine), nor do I need the $1,600 Louis Vuitton diaper bag. (My sister bought me a cute Petunia Pickle Bottom one at 75 percent off from a store that was closing. Otherwise, my old one still works.) And no, my little one will not be wearing a $190 checked Burberry dress.

            But every year, there are new products and baby items out there that make parenting easier and/or just more fun.

            The byword of all things baby these days is eco-friendly, so items boast about being green and free of chemicals, solvents, and other yucky stuff. Think hypoallergenic, all-natural, organic, and sustainable. Another byword (at least for me) is affordable. But if it works, I will pay more for it (Wonder Boy had sensitive skin as a newborn and the Mustela line of baby products was the only one that worked for him.)

            What are some of the newest products making waves these days?