What's inside...
🎄 So I walked out to my mailbox one morning…🎄
…and found a lovely and entirely anonymous note.
I adore decorating for the holidays, inside and out. I would do it even if I were the only one to enjoy them. I am happy my efforts made someone’s evening a little brighter.
What really got me was the intention behind this: Driving around with a pen and paper and leaving a kind note in a stranger’s mailbox.
How many times have I driven past a garden I admired? Or smiled at the folks down the road who recreate—right down to Linus’s blanket—the raggedy tree from the Charlie Brown Christmas special?
As a writer, I always have pen and paper on me. I am going to start to put it to good, random-act-of-kindness use.
We are driving around looking at Christmas lights. Yours are beautiful. Thank you for contributing to our joyous tradition.
Merry Christmas & God Bless
The Women Who Secretly Built the Atomic Bomb
Santa: Who Knew?
Krampus! Assassins! Inappropriate Elves!
It must be the holiday season inside the very strange and somewhat deranged mind of author Joe D’Agnese.
Joe has three Christmas books—on sale!—that you might want to check out: Two are in his female Santa Claus series. (You read that right—Santa Claus is a woman and she is bad-ass.) He also has a short, sweet, time-travel Christmas story about a geeky kid who is obsessed with model trains. (Hey—write what you know.) You can check out all of his books here.
How does Joe know so much about model trains? Watch the video I made of the street trolley cruising across our holiday mantelpiece—and welcome to my life!
Look Up! Look Up!
This coming weekend, the Geminids are going to be putting on a show, and it’s expected to be one of the best performances of the year.
According to The American Meteor Society, the Geminids are often one of the strongest meteor showers of the entire year, and result from the Earth intersecting with a dust cloud left behind by the Phaethon asteroid. This Geminid show will be running (“active”) until the 17th, but is peaking this Saturday and Sunday, December 13th and 14th, when it should be visible before midnight.
I love stargazing but usually have no Earthly (cap intended) idea what I’m looking at beyond the Dippers and the North Star. I like using the following apps to guide me (and no, these are not affiliate links):
⭐ SkySafari The cheapest version is 99 cents, just fine for backyard gazers.
⭐ Stellarium Mobile Totally free.
The constellation Bruno Major.
🌟 Until next time…🌟
Next week I’ve got a big surprise coming. Okay, maybe not a total surprise, but a big deal to me nonetheless.
Will you join me?
Until then, I am off to leave random notes in the mailboxes of unsuspecting neighbors.
With Gratitude,
