Love you for your brains ;)

So we're late to this party, I know, but we are SOO into The Walking Dead. We starting with Season 1 in early December and despite my declaration after each of the first 4-5 episodes or so of "I have a headache from the stress, I don't think I can do this," we sped through Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix before eagerly recording (and speeding through) the New Year's Season 3 marathon (This brilliant "The Emotional Roller Coaster that is The Walking Dead…" pretty much reads my mind and verbalizes all my feelings). I wish we were this dedicated to things like managing our finances or health care or vacuuming.

So when the mid-season premier of Season 3 came around and fell just a few days before Valentine's Day I was inspired by this dad to make a cool Zombie Survival Kit to celebrate. And since I didn't get a write-up finished in time for said mid-season premier, I thought I'd save it and offer it now. You now have 1.5 days-ish to put something together as an end-of-Season3 gift and/or Easter Basket for a zombie enthusiast.  Sooo here ya' go.

Aside -- I have to say... this second half of Season 3 has been a bit frustrating; up-and-down, compelling then boring. I think what I loved about the earlier shows is (although as a general rule I REALLY don't like apocalyptic, end-of-the-world-y fiction... History Channel hypotheticals are ok) was that is was unchartered territory... I mean, what do you do when civilization is basically gone and you're about to get eaten every other second? The small victories were so good and I felt like we were slowly peeing back layers of characters. Now, I'm like, "dude let's get it on with Woodbury already and let the chips fall where they may. And why for the love of all that is holy has nobody just shot The Governor when they had the chance?" I did love the episode where Rick finds Morgan again, and Glen and Maggie's engagement, and the really sad goodbye to Merle (yes he was a jerk but could he have been rehabilitated if he'd stuck around long enough? Was his last act really unselfish? Did it not break your heart when Daryl found him and had to put him down? I was really hoping he would've taken the Gov. out and then the finale could be a really nice wedding episode...lame? If nothing else, please don't let Daryl wear sleeves. End Aside.

Ok, so. I made my darling a Zombie Survival Kit. I didn't reinvent the wheel, I'm sure there are other and better such kits out there, but here was my jam--I wanted it to be affordable and I wanted to incorporate items that E would actually use. And I wanted it to be fun... this isn't like, serious emergency prep here. So with that in mind you could basically put anything in a Zombie Survival Kit for your loved one and just come up with some goofy explanations for each item. Or you could follow that awesome dad's example and package candy in fun ways, Here's what I did:

• Socks (I try to replenish his stash every Christmas but since I missed it this year, V-day was perfect timing) - "For when you need to run like hell"
• Underpants (I can only hear that word in Cory Matthews' voice, and again, I make sure he gets some new pairs annually) - "For when the you-know-what hits the fan"
• Duct Tape - "You can never have to much," Bungee Cords (because we'd been saying we needed some for the car), a flashlight to keep in his glove compartment... all from the 99 cent store and things that are useful for survival
• Gatorade - "Avoid Contaminated Sources of Water"
• Lifesaver Mints - "Because I couldn't wrap Daryl Dixon"

• And because he's been threatening to buy a crossbow, I was totally stoked to find this mini one at Party City, and in a moment of perfect timing, found a Groupon for a local amusement park for unlimited laser tag, a laser maze, ropes course, rock-climbing wall.... So I told him it would be great survival training (only with no blood, hopefully).

There's some awesome ways to package this (a metal lockbox or nice backpack, maybe?) but in the interest of time and money I used plain craft paper and printed some labels. I wanted my writing to look like some hastily written memo to fellow survivors, mission accomplished? Oh, and red paint.

He liked it.

How cute is he? :)

 Some other ideas for your Zombie (Walker) Survival Kit:

• Trail Mix
• Canned Foods
• Twinkies or Top Ramen - "Shelf Life Will Survive Any Apocalypse"
• Batteries
• Nerf Gun or Water Gun
• Water Bottle
• Swiss Army Knife or multi-tool (he already had one or I would've added this)
• Band-Aids, Advil, vitamins or other first-aid supplies
• Gloves (gardening/work gloves?)
• Gas Card
• Road flares to keep in their trunk in case of emergency
• Hand Sanitizer - "Let's Be Real, Zombie Guts Are Not Sanitary"
• Condoms - "As Exemplified by Lori Grimes, Unprotected Sex During the Zombie Apocalypse Can Complicate Things" (do not take this as my endorsement for giving children condoms)
• Gift certificate to play paintball, go to a shooting range, take archery lessons or for one of those cool Zombie Run 10k races
• You could package small candies like M&Ms and Skittles in old (cleaned) prescription bottles, package Fun Size candy bars in BandAid boxes, or wrap up Fruit Roll-ups in a roll of gauze so that as they unroll it they find more treats
• This awesome shirt which probably accurately describes my fate in the zombie apocalypse

Have fun!!