I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  I did.  My brother was sick so he didn't enjoy himself as much but I hope he's feeling better.  I got some Lush bath products which I love, two beautiful necklaces and the complete Monty Python compendium.  Those were from Alan.  One necklace is sapphire (my birthstone) and diamond while the other has beads (like Pandora charms but these happen to be another brand) with Celtic themes.  Friends gave me Yankee Candle swag, perfume, earrings and I got the Clockwork Angels novel from Matt and Tammy.  Oh, they gave us some gift certificates to our mutual favorite tavern, too.

I got Alan a weather station, a solar powered radio, two books, Minecraft figurines and a hoodie he wanted.  Actually some of that was from the puppies.  The books are by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists.

I've told a couple of you this in conversation or email, but on the Christmas card front, our card made it to Sheffield, England before either of the ones we sent to Canada were delivered.  That's bizarre to me, that mail can get all the way across the pond more quickly than it can head north.  The ones I've seen either in person or via cell phone photos look like my wax seals made it intact.  I was glad of this because sometimes the post office's machinery destroys them.

Tomorrow we head to Augusta for Christmas with Alan's family.  It will be good to see them.