Today we drove out to Evergreen Farms, near Elgin, Tex., to cut our own Christmas tree. We've been having such a bad drought here that it felt kind of surreal to be picking out a pine tree while wild gusts of warm, dry air stung our noses & eyes with dry dust. A Currier & Ives winter wonderland it may not have been, but it was an interesting outing all the same.

We came home with a fine tree & will gussy it up in the morning. I'm really looking forward to pulling all the ornaments out of boxes & tissue paper & seeing them again. I've got a couple good, trusty pals I've particularly missed (Leather & straw lion, I'm talking about you)