Our Eclectic Christmas...

We had a quiet but quite lovely Christmas.

Steve and I had stopped buying each other presents years ago. But leave it to our amazing friends to make certain there was something to open on Christmas morning. They know me so well. I have never seen Scrabble magnets for the fridge before. What a very cool themed gift. Thank you so much, Suzanne.

My bibliophile buddy Bill delivered this set of 1931 Birds of America books to our front porch. The illustrations and descriptions are wonderful and the size is perfect for our birding outings.

Our South Carolina friend, Sharon, gave us three of my favorite things in two gifts: a quote book and a puzzle of vintage postage stamps. Perfect, indeed!

Speaking of my love of stamps, Henry, at the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History sent me this amazing 1985 Commemorative Stamp set. That is one of those years in my life and he could not have picked a better year.

After the gifts were opened, I spent some time in my 'office' creating (and writing thank you notes for all the generosity). I made this postcard, with the image coming from a 1961 YA novel. I love the artwork.

Knowing that a walk was needed, and that the 75 ° day could not be wasted, we strolled to our local Starbucks.

Our Christmas lunch was provided by the amazing staff there. I wrote a thank you note, attached to the tip, which read, "We know there are other places you would rather be today but we wanted you to know how much we appreciate you being here. We had absolutely nowhere else to go!"