Happy Holidays to all

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to say a quick "Happy Holidays" to everyone.

Here in my house we spent the weekend celebrating Christmas and it was a lovely one filled with visits from family and quiet time with the kids. I love this time of the year - decorating the tree, wonderful music, making gingerbread houses, baking (and eating) lots and lots of cookies. ;)

M got me a perfectly fabulous tea-related gift this year -- a shiny new electric kettle. I could not be more excited. (Yes, I get very, very excited about such things.) You can set the temp and it will bring it to that temp and maintain it within a 2 degree range. Finally gong fu tea preparation will be much more convenient and efficient. I'll be able to better control my water temp and quality. Even in my western-style tea brewing I'll be able to ensure that my water is at the perfect temp without breaking out the thermometer. It allows me to switch between
Celsius and Fahrenheit too. This is helpful for me because I sometimes receive teas from companies (like the ever wonderful Aura Teas) that give their instructions in Celsius and now I don't have to do the recalculation. The little things in life make me very, very happy.

For those of you not celebrating Christmas I suspect many of you still had some time off this weekend. I hope it was relaxing and filled with good tea.