While I tell of Yuletide Treasures...

For at least 25 years now, we have a "pre-Christmas" celebration with our close friends, the Hopkins family. Bob's birthday falls on Christmas day itself, so in some ways the pre-Christmas is more fun. We alternate years hosting the party. Aside from the good food, better company, and the traditional bottle of Moët Impérial, another feature of the event from my standpoint is that the Hopkins "get" (and share) my love of history in away that my own family, with the possible exception of my older daughter, do not. Their gifts to me are almost always books. This year, I received a veritable treasure trove from them:

This last, acquired inexpensively from a used book sale,. is perhaps my favorite. While I had read it maybe 30+ years ago, I don't own a copy. Yes, if I recall properly, it is a heavily romanticized narrative, but as a place to start that's perhaps not such a bad embarkation point.  I look forward to reading it again!

No lead for me this year; with the huge backlog of Macedonians, Canaanites, and the rest of the lead pile facing me, I will attempt to avoid buying any new figures for a least a few months into 2017. Now of course if Murasaki were to release Baden Light Dragoons and Artillery and couple that with a sale, my resolve would be worth very little, LOL! And if they ever get around to announcing a Theme for Historicon 2017, that might impact my buying as well. Yep, like Lancelot in the musical "Camelot", I'm blessed with an Iron Will. Or maybe it should be "I'll be leaving a lot of Lead in my Will", LOL! 

Myself, the Empress, and Grandson (and potential heir to the Lead Fortune), Owen.

He is certainly the greatest of our Yuletide treasures!