Good health?
Ready access to excellent medical care?
Love?
A warm, dry safe place to shelter?
Dear friends?
The most materially fortunate spent today unwrapping their Christmas gifts.
Jose, as is his wont, gave me a lovely mixture of the practical and flattering, from a new workout wardrobe to get me back into the gym in style to a book about the mountains of Antarctica to…a folding telescope!
Not at all what some men might buy a wife for their first married Christmas but I was, and am, totally thrilled. I feel like a pirate woman. The ‘scope is powerful enough that I can tell if someone’s standing on the balcony of the apartment building on the opposite side of the Hudson, a distance of three miles. Essential!
My gifts to him this year included “1493”, a new work of history; a paisley silk pocket square and bright blue tattersall shirt and a road atlas. I like that our gifts to each of us combine a sense of adventure with the tools to enjoy it.
It’s a quiet Christmas for us; my father is in Canada with my two half-brothers and my Mom is in a nursing home far away. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with our New York family, whose daughter Jose dated some 15 years ago, all of whom have remained dear friends of ours. We went to church this morning, part of a very small group of perhaps 20 others.
I hope your Christmas was lovely!
What was your best present, given or received?
Broadside 
Lovely post.
I can so relate to spending time with friends who are like family, attending church, and experiencing a sweet Christmas. But we don’t do gift exchanges. That is, we gift homemade goods to others. And… wow… we’re blown away when we receive gifts in kind.
I keep telling Steven that we should have a barter system throughout the year ’cause it’s delish.