Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

As a child, I loved to receive mail.  Back in the day, the postal carrier would deliver twice a day during the Christmas season and I remember begging my mother to be the one who would open the cards.  When I was in college, my maternal grandmother would occasionally send me a letter, complete with newspaper clippings of articles she felt were important.  Sad to say, I didn't keep any of those.  But I remember the excitement of checking the collegiate mailbox and finding mail in there! Christmas cards, with the accompanying annual letter, remain a big deal for me.  I have composed a newsy tome for many years--don't remember how many--and once we had children, first added a photo to the card before switching over to the photo card.  Once during the holiday season, after all the cards have arrived, I spend an afternoon re-reading the letters we have received, making mental notes of what has been going on in our old friends' lives.   More than ...