Favorite Things (not the Rod Stewart version)

I think one of my favorite things about the Holly station on XMradio is that I am continuously surprised by the random artists who bust out Christmas albums. Rod Stewart?  'Nsync?  Richard Marx has a new one out?  Nice (for him) that he can still find work.  Anyway, here are some of my favorite things, surprise Christmas presents from friends:

 The 12 HoliDays of Tea from Teavana from my best emailing friend Lisa, who also loves tea.  We will be comparing notes on which ones we like best.  These are the herbal infusion teas I think.  Almond cake was fabulous, can't wait to try the rest.  Kind of like dessert in a cup without all the calories (and caffeine).

 This is a little blurry but you get the idea... it's the pump and grind pepper grinder, to fit in my purse and take to those restaurants where they won't let me control the pepper grinder.  Many thanks to the thorough blog readers and great friends Angela and Joe!  They stopped to see us on their way to Indy the other night, great to catch up as always.  I should have planned a better dessert or something since it was supposed to be the last night according to the Mayan calendar (I think) but Angela and Joe are the type of people who always live like the end is near.  Love hearing about their adventures and plans.  They've lived in some really cool places and up next is living on a boat near Seattle.  The eventual plan is to sail to Hawaii and live there for a while.  Can't wait to visit in both places!

 Thanks to Kitra I finally have a great Christmas plate that is normal size so when I put cookies on it I don't have to put 3 dozen out.  Patrick is asking to use it for his dinner.  We'll see.

 Kitra also got us a print to go with a couple others in the library.  Sums us up pretty well as I'm trying to get the kids motivated to go to mass, works best if they think they will see friends there.

 Of course I love all the Christmas cards we receive and Angela and Joe always come up with the most creative ones.  This year it is one of those things you used to make in grade school, not sure what it's called, but you open it up and it has their annual update under each triangle (instead of "you will be a rockstar" or "you will be a bum").  One year they sent us a nutshell and inside all rolled up in a single line was their message.  Their year in a nutshell.  Get it?  Loved it!  I love all the photo cards too and I think I need a couple more places to hang them up.  Put that on my list to do...

Chocolates!  Fancy chocolates from our good friends the Raneys who moved to Lawrence.  I forgot to get a photo before I devoured half the box.  I may have done that immediately...  Can't wait to get back to Lawrence for another visit.  Usually when friends move away they go really far, so I'm glad to only have a short drive to see Carrie.  While I don't like being busy all the time, if it involves friends I am happy to add it to my schedule.  Planning more trips to see friends this upcoming year, I figure after all I did alone with the kids last summer we can easily handle it.