Christmas Adam.

Some people joke that since Adam came before Eve, December 23rd could be called "Christmas Adam".

    <rimshot>

Today has been a day of my own, which is not usual.  I am celebrating a slightly belated birthday by having a "jammies day", with no obligation to go outside, so in theory I could stay in my pajamas all day.  I did put on clothing for Torah Study, because most of us are on-camera, and also to get the mail.

I've had great things arriving, whether gifts from friends, or cards and letters.  It's nice to get something other than ads and bills.  I do receive some magazines - mostly fiber arts or cooking, or from the universities from which I have degrees - but mostly my mail is uninteresting.  It's nice that some people still do cards and letters.

Part of my activity for the last couple of days has been to write cards.  Specifically, I am writing thank-you cards for sailors, which a friend of mine in Honolulu distributes as part of her social worker activities.  I'd asked a couple times for recommendations about text, and finally one of the prolific contributors replied to tell me that she looked online for sites with sample text.  I did a hunt and found a couple of sites, using their examples to create my own text.  I'd stocked up on cheerful-looking, or just elegant, thank-you cards at a dollar store, and decided to write as many as would fit into a Small Flat Rate Box, given the distance to ship and the weight of such things.

In a way I am honoring my grandmother by doing this, because she was a fierce supporter of our military, and her second husband, my step-grandfather, was in the Navy.

So those will go off to my friend, as will the final two gifts for friends in Connecticut.

These look much better when on a head, trust me!

When it was clear the hats would not be finished in time, I quickly made some spiced molasses snowflakes to include in their package as the eighth Channukah gift.  I thought the hats would arrive in time for their traditional Solstice woods walk, but nope.  Work has been very busy for me.  So sometime before Twelfth Night, they will have new hats.  The green one is the Joshua Tree Hat from the National Parks series, because the recipient loves to hike in national parks, and I am including a printout of the New York Times' recent article.  The other is Stephen West's Honey Striped Hat done in a single yarn, so it looks like a turtle shell, because the recipient is nicknamed "Turtle".

Now to spend the evening eating roast beef and ice cream (sequentially, not together!), and crocheting or knitting, and reading.  I am up to 15 books read and reported this year according to Goodreads, and I would like to get to an even number.  My current bedside book is thick enough that I am pretty sure I won't finish by the 31st, plus I've been hoarding a seasonal mystery for just this week.  Time to open it!