Remember the other day when I told you the story of mailing Christmas cards, and how I ended up having a whole new set of cards I got from the clerk lady? Well, a new thought just occurred to me: What if the sole reason I got these New Year’s cards was because the lady wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be using cards with ribbons anymore? Well, even though that thought just crossed my mind, I’d like to think the best of people. I’ll rather continue to tell myself it was the goodness and kindness of the clerk lady that blessed me with a new set of greeting cards, and not her desire to avoid trouble next time I show up to send greetings. And in case you haven’t gotten any season’s greetings from me this year – here we go: Merry Christmas, and a happy new year!

Let’s talk a little about presents today. Particularly Christmas presents. They are the little tokens of love exchanged between people who care enough for one another to think it’s worth their time and money putting together something to give away in order to make someone else happy. And presents are thought to be pleasant things. At least generally. But not always. In fact, I’ve learned to view presents with mixed feelings. And I’ve learned that sometimes it’s smarter to not participate in activities like White Elephant (common gift exchanges among larger groups of people). And if you take a look at this chicken (with which one of my friends was kindly bestowed tonight during the foreign faculty Christmas party, and which is perfectly gifted to cry and wail and mutter and stutter long and loudly as soon as you press its belly), you may understand why! So, Merry Chickmas, I’ll say to that!