There. That wasn't so bad.

I went to the post office this afternoon, to mail my two annual Christmas packages (to my mother, and to my friend M. in North Carolina -- everyone else I exchange with is local), and to mail the penultimate round of a six-round set of quilt block swaps (I'm the swap hostess -- everyone mails her blocks to me, then I swap them all out and mail them back to them), and I only had to wait in line for about ten minutes. The clerk I dealt with was very pleasant and friendly, too.

Not bad for the fifth of December.

Oh, and here's the samples I made when I was soliciting swappers (wow, does that not sound like what really happened), if you're interested in what we're swapping. The block is called spinning star or ribbon star, and it's six inches square. Every six weeks starting last June we've swapped another color, so this month was orange, and the end of January will be red.



I just got my Christmas tree out of the garage and set it up, too. I'll decorate it tonight. Yes, I'm being brave. This is the first time I've put up the full-sized tree since Teddy and Ivan came to live with me. I'm really hoping they won't destroy it.

It's beginning to feel like the holidays!