A gorgeous, spectacular sunset on what was a rainy, rather miserable day. Gosh, I love sunsets. I might have more pictures of sunsets than of anything else. Except Scout, of course.

That mail truck?

It was delivering a lovely package for me. My longtime friend Tracie, of My Petite Maison, had a sort of ‘flash’ giveaway on her Facebook page a while back and I won. Tracie has an online boutique that specializes in French Nordic Goods and she has impeccable taste and a beautiful home. Even more importantly, she has been a dear friend over the years I’ve been blogging. We share a deep love of all animals. Many times during Riley’s last year of life, Tracie was there for me. She nursed her beloved Zeke through his last months in much the same way I nursed Riley. She’s a dear, compassionate, loving person who just happens to live in a beautiful town in California. (Need I say I’m a bit jealous on this bitterly cold January morning?)

I hardly ever win a giveaway, so I was surprised and delighted when Tracie informed me that I was the winner.

Excuse the blurry photo, but I just had to show Tracie that Scout was mightily intrigued by this package. I bet she could smell Bechet, Tracie’s beautiful dog.

Here’s a better picture of Tracie’s beautiful wrapping. Sigh. It’s almost too lovely to open.

Here’s what was inside. Vintage by Nina, a big, beautiful coffee table sized book full of amazing photos. Nina Hartmann is an internationally known stylist and lover of all things vintage, who runs the shop vintagebynina.com and also has a showroom in Sweden. This is her third book and it includes not only her work, but the work of eight other collectors and friends.

It’s Gorgeous with a capital G. I can’t wait to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and indulge in the beauty of the photographs. And it’s autographed by Nina.

Tracie, being Tracie, also included some organic tea and some heavenly lavender.

Thank you, Tracie dear, for this generous gift. And thank you for your friendship.

My neighbors who are stranded in Aruba? They can’t get a flight out until Saturday. So yesterday, there was a flurry of messages back and forth on Facebook, a search for her house key (successful) and instructions on feeding the cats and fish, plus a little litter box cleaning. They had expected to be back by Saturday and it was now Monday, so those cats were happy to see us. They were waiting at the door and guided us right to their empty food dish!  So we’ll be doing a little cat and fish sitting this week.

Tomorrow is the start of our Christmas Critter Felt Along. Dawn and I will be posting our first two ornaments, along with the patterns. I just made mine on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. We’d love having you join in.

And finally, the day has arrived! Don’s show, American Experience/The Poisoner’s Handbook, airs tonight at 8:00 on PBS (7 pm Central.) It’s a documentary with a mix of interviews and historical information and a reenactment, which is where you’ll see Don as Dr. Charles Norris. It’s the kind of thing that PBS does incredibly well and we are very excited to see the final product. We’re eating dinner early so that Scout can get through her hyper ‘Daddy is cooking!’ nightly craziness in time for us all to settle down in front of the television.

I hope you can see it!

Happy Tuesday.