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The week of Christmas felt more normal and relaxed.<\/strong> By Christmas our family crises had settled, and we enjoyed our traditional Thanksgiving-Christmas dinner, a long nap, and finally in the evening, opening the tree presents.<\/p>\n My family gave me books, of course\u2014mostly theology and spirituality, plus the Bruce Hornsby Anthology<\/em> so I could study some piano rock. They also gave me a few cans of Wolf hot dog sauce (a favorite of mine that’s hard to find), Ali Shan oolong tea (recommended in Fredrik Knudsen\u2019s tea stream<\/a>), and a Nature Creation herbal relief pack<\/a> to study its tea blend potential.<\/p>\n On Tuesday I drove two hours to see my old college roommate Jason. I met his adorable and friendly dog, and then we had a picnic and a walk at a nearby park, having our usual in-depth conversation about life, which we continued back at his place until he considerately kicked me out at five so I wouldn’t have to drive the whole way back in the dark. This sent me home into a beautiful sunset.<\/p>\n Wednesday I flew back to Chicago, saw my apartment building from the plane, and took a nostalgic train ride home, remembering the rides back in my college days. Besides my college friends, the only thing missing was the old Ogilvie food court.<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n My gift labels this year were tea bag tags I made based on customer-created teas from Adagio<\/a> that contained the recipients\u2019 names.<\/strong> I attached the tags with strings to the wrapped tea tins. I chose a variety of flavors in case we wanted to share them, but for various reasons that didn’t end up happening. My favorite blend was The Amazing Kimberly<\/a>, simply because it was such a fun project idea\u2014two friends designing blends inspired by each other.<\/p>\nChristmas labels<\/h2>\n
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