Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I bought a book to give as a Christmas present (I can’t share the title as the recipient and I haven’t exchanged gifts yet) without reading it, based solely on the reviews I’d read online from other bloggers. I reserved a copy from the library and picked it up last night and am relieved to report that the first two chapters point to this being a successful pick. I’m glad, or the guilt might have done me in!

2. Usually, at night, only Della and Jeremiah come in to sleep with us. Posey, our long-haired cat, tends not to join us in bed, preferring instead to sleep out in the living room. Last night, though, as we were hunkering down to sleep, she tentatively poked her way through the beaded curtain into the bedroom, clambered around the perimeter of the room, and finally nuzzled her way under the covers between me and Rudi. It’s highly unusual to get the whole family in bed with us at once, so this was an especially nice, cozy way to spend a chilly night.

3. I am notoriously bad about returning things. But in the last week, I’ve returned a bunch of things that I bought during the Christmas season and needed to take back to the stores for one reason or another (wrong size, wrong price, duplicate copies). It’s nice to have that all taken care of. Now if I could just get the rest of the Christmas presents wrapped and shipped out to their recipients….