What a great way to bring an end to 2009 – a giant surprise delivered to us from Berlin, Germany. Taner and Verena, the friends who visited back in October sent us a wonderful box full of delightful gifts. For Caroline, the highlight was a scarf Verena was wearing during her visit that Caroline was admiring. She immediately slung it around her neck, wore it for tonight’s dinner, and just couldn’t be happier – Caroline sends all the gratitude in the world to Verena for her generosity. As for me, the highlight is a stone, a simple small river stone that has been captured in a little soldered steel exoskeleton fashioned into a bird with bright orange and yellow steel tail feathers. The bird is balanced on a stand made to look like bird legs that allows for it to rock back and forth – it now sits on the left of my monitor with a couple of other personal mementos to remind me of a brief but spectacular visit with an old friend and a new friend. The third gift is a beautiful large gecko made of porcelain, painted with a lovely blue pattern.