Ok, so that’s probably not the most flattering title, but it’s the best I could come up with. Hopefully you know what I mean. I’m not talking about giving gifts to people you don’t really care about – those are gifts, to me, best left un-given, money and energy better directed elsewhere. But that’s a blog for another day.

No, when I talk about peripheral gift-giving, I mean all the people in your life that you want to recognize and honor in some small way, but that you may not know well enough to come up with a truly personal gift. I’m thinking of preschool teachers, Sunday school volunteers, soccer coaches or ballet teachers, even mothers you don’t know well in your large mom’s group. I’ve polled (very unscientifically) several friends of mine who are teachers, and found out what they like and what doesn’t work so well.

It seems that clothing designers have finally figured out that moms can still be cool and funny; for the past few years I’ve seen a rush of clever slogan t-shirts aimed at mothers, and have even reviewed a few of my favorites. But as the market has become saturated, I’ve been turning down requests to review new products; there simply didn’t seem anything new out there except more whiney t-shirts hinting at overburdened, underappreciated mothers, and I couldn’t find a reason to encourage you to buy them.

A few weeks ago, though, I stumbled across a new line called Mamaisms, and I liked it so much I actually wrote to them and asked if I could review their shirts. Their slogan, “Mamaisms: Because the World Needs A Dose Of Common Sense” resonates with me, the shirts are good quality, and more important, they put their money where their mouth is.

I’m always on the lookout for ways to indulge myself without ingesting either 1) calories or 2) chemicals of dubious healthfulness (also known as artificial sweeteners). I recently stumbled across a real winner.

Metromint is a relatively new line of flavored water that is, as you can guess, variations on mint. Most flavored waters will have the aforementioned artificial sweeteners, or at least a modicum of calories, in them, with my favorite Hint Water being a notable exception. But I’ve not found any that channel my favorite flavor – chocolate.

As I explained yesterday, I’ve discovered a gaping hole in the chocolate world – an unexplored area, if you will. Specifically, no one had really delved into the world of chocolate from the point of view of a pregnant or post-partum mommy.

As we all know, we’ve got specific cravings and wants when the hormones are raging. So I made it my mission to find the best of the best from small chocolatiers all across the country. For more details on my criteria and how I narrowed the final list down, see yesterday’s blog. But for now, let’s get to the chocolate.