The blessings of friendship

This is the time of year when many of us think about friends, especially those from long ago, ones we hope to stay in contact with. 

I'm one of those oddballs who still likes to send (and receive!) Christmas cards. 

Quite a few of the ones I send are homemade, often using bits of old cards, recycling them into new creations. 

This one was quite fun, already such a beautiful Christmas tree. All I had to do was tear the paper around it and attach it to a green piece of cardstock (that I'd added gold and red bands to). But then, the most fun part of all: in my collection of paper clips, I found a star-shaped one. So I cut a hole near the top of the tree and clipped it in. To cover the torn spot, I stuck on a glittery red circle. Voila! 

And yes, this one's going to a friend from long-ago, one I've been lucky enough to find and reconnect with. Something I treasure. 

But I've also been rediscovering other kinds of friends -- the kind in the image at the top of this post -- like that darling girl, Anne with an E. 

I think I might have started this kick earlier this fall when I went back to Philip Pullman's wonderful series, 'His Dark Materials' and reread the first in that trilogy, The Golden Compass. There's nothing quite like riding along with Lyra, hanging on to the fur of a very big polar bear. 

Ah, so blessed am I -- even when I can't hang out with my usual, nearby friends, I can still pal about with those friends in the pages of well-loved books.