If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Boxing Day, Bonus Week”.

Boxing Day is what the English call December 26, because that is the day all the unwanted and excess gifts get boxed up to donate to the poor people.

In America, people probably box up the extras and ship them back to Amazon.

That’s not what I came here to tell you. The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day has always felt like a bonus week to me. It doesn’t really have any obligations, many people are not at work, kids are not in school, and it seems as if the entire world is just on vacation (and driving through Three Rivers).

So, this week I will write about topics that are out of the ordinary. Tomorrow I will tell you about being inspired by beauty. Thursday I will give you links to five internet places that I really enjoy and hope you will too. On Friday, well, let’s see. . . it’s close enough to the end of the month that it will be our monthly Learned List.

Next Tuesday I will return to showing you paintings in progress.