It's Christmas Eve!

So I walked into the Post Office to buy some pretty stamps.  I picked out these beauties:

If you can't read this it says LOVE.  The woman behind the counter said, "I think we're out of those," and turned to her colleague.  "Are we out of LOVE?" and the other woman replied,

"Oh, Honey, I'm never out of Love." 

Let's raise a glass to the United States Postal Service.

I've been worrying that I haven't bought enough Christmas presents for my family; it's hard to find something Arthur really wants, Molly doesn't like to get clothes for gifts because, she says, "I have my own style." Jessie doesn't like "stuff."  I love wrapping presents, I love finding the perfect gift, but that doesn't always happen at Christmas and buying something just to do it feels futile and a little like over-eating.

  This week's New Yorker has a cartoon with two kids looking at the pile of presents under the tree.  One says, "Sure it's a present now but when you unwrap it it turns into socks and shirts." 

Well, yes.  Socks.  Have you heard of Bombas? The world's best socks--when you put them on it feels like a hug for your feet. Here's their story; For each pair of socks sold, Bombas gives away a pair to people experiencing homelessness--as they put it in their eco-friendly packaging, to "people who don't have the luxury of putting on clean clothes everyday." 

Even as we face a new shut-down, a new strain of the virus and the need to postpone the things we thought we were starting up again, we have a great many things to give thanks for. You know what they are for you.

I'm grateful that I can keep on working and that I don't have arthritis in my hands.  Here's the next step of the piece I showed you last week.  You may remember the blue curtains--I took them out because they didn't look serious enough.  That's Gary Hershorn's photograph of lightning striking the World Trade Center.  I'll probably add an image of Saint Barbara eventually, but for now I've started on something new.

 

However you celebrate the holidays, I wish you joy and hope for better times in the New Year.