Moss of Leave

Many years ago, when I was a Girl Scout leader, I bought a big box of blank cards and envelopes on sale at an office supply store. They were meant for a project where we were going to print decorations on the cards and then use them to send messages to someone, I forget who. But my rambunctious little Scouts couldn't bring themselves to focus on printing cards for more than a few minutes and then the usual chaos broke loose, so I ended up with a lot of extra cards. It turned out to be a great investment because I've used them over the years to make Valentine's Day collages for the kids, and lots of other amusing things. Ever since the kids grew up and decided they wanted to do Secret Santa exchanges instead of buying gifts for everyone, I've been in charge of creating the Secret Santa rotation. It's tricky because there are four originals and three spouses, so it doesn't come out even! Every year, I puzzle over the correct permutation. And then I get out my cards and cut up amusing or sweet images from Christmas catalogs and whatnot, and create a little card for each one to notify them about their person for this year. I spent a couple of hours on this project tonight, and now they're all stamped and sealed, ready to go in the mail.

Snow fell again today, just enough to be slushy and icy, and I watched it fall with huge gratitude that it held off until we were home. Last night, I was exhausted and only wanted to sleep, but I woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. It seems so much more wrong to be up in the middle of the night when it's winter! It's so dark and so cold. Finally, after the Sparrowhawk got up, and I'd had a cup of tea, and it was light, I was able to crawl back into bed and pass out again for a couple more hours.