One of our favorite gifts to give is an experience – a favorite class, a movie date, a flying lesson with Martin…

The envelope scraps left from our Christmas cards looked like the perfect gift card envelopes!  I used the same lace stamp and white ink.  Then I added a zigzag stitch with my sewing machine.  The stitches weren’t necessary.  They just felt like the perfect handmade detail.

The gift card is much the same – just a little scrap of green paper from our Christmas cards.

I decided not to stitch the top closed so the card is easy to pull out.  (So obviously these gifts will not be appearing under the tree until the last minute!)

All we need is a black marker to jot down the recipient’s name on the envelope and a note on the inside!

I hate green tea.

Or at least up until yesterday, I used to.  Martin and I received some loose green tea for Christmas.  Did you know that the best green tea is from China?  I guess food snobs won’t touch Japanese green tea or anything else.  It must come from China!

So there you go, we received a “Made in China” gift.

But what do you do with the stuff?

I remember the little Asian woman who ran my favorite tea shop in Berlin.  She was always explaining how to make a lot of teas to me in her broken German, which always made the German customers in her shop chuckle.  Me and my broken German would be responding, “Boy, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sounds delicious.”  German words like “brew” and “seep” aren’t exactly in my vocabulary.  (“Rinse” is thanks to the scariest dentist appointment ever.)  Anyway, the one thing I remember her teaching me was that oolong teas, green teas, and several others are best made in a little pot.  That way you make the tea as you go, and it doesn’t get really bitter.

I *think* she said to seep the tea in a little pot for about three minutes, then pour into a cup.  She said you could repeat this process with the same tea leaves three times.  (My eyebrows are raised at the probability of everything in threes.  Again – not because of her broken German, but mine.)

I spotted a one-cup tea pot at a thrift store to the tune of $1.  It was made in Poland.  It’s the perfect little pot for green tea.  Here’s a peek inside.

The tea in that picture is pretty dark because – hello Katie!  You have to stop drinking tea with caffeine or you’ll be wide awake until Santa comes down the chimney next week.

So if you happen to be in a city with a tea shop, get the green tea.  It’s incredible, incredible, incredible.

There is a reason our family survives as a one-car household in the mountains.  When the temperatures stick below freezing for days and days or the rain pours and pours, we’re still bee-bopping around with one vehicle.  I’m going to confess that the reason is oh-my-gosh, absolutely 100% not because of me.  It’s him:

I didn’t even know what studded bicycle tires were until I met this guy.

Did you?

(Thanks Martin!)