When the cards and bookmarks arrived I peeked into the envelope to see them and then stacked them up until after Christmas to enjoy. Today I finally had time to go through them and remove the wonderful bookmarks. They are now in my rather large (and growing) stack of bookmarks from which I randomly pull one for each new book. Thank you all so much for the bookmarks and for making the holidays that much more enjoyable! P.S. My envelopes were removed from my mailbox before the mail was delivered and while I think a second mailman probably took them I have not been sure so I hope you did receive one from me.

Funnily enough, I too, have an idea for next year's bookmark exchange. It's all thanks to the sister I visited at Christmas. She's very crafty and decided to make some bookmarks while I was there. If I don't forget...I am going to utilize one of the designs she made (and gave to me) for the next exchange. Sheriz6, I like your idea for storing bookmarks and am going to look for something similar in which to store mine. Right now, they are in various locations around the house. I want to gather them all together so I can select just the right one for whichever book(s) I happen to be reading at the moment.

It's funny that this topic of holiday cards came up because we were just discussing this in our office. We've even noticed a significant decline in the amount of cards we receive at work. Hopefully people and businesses will still value the tradition in the future. Also, thank you for the bookmarks I've received. I was trying to hold out until I received them all, but I just couldn't! It was a delight to open all of the card and bookmarks. Finally, I'm glad you like the geisha bookmarks that I sent. I always spend a lot of time trying to find a unique bookmark to send.

My mother spent her last years in a nursing home with vascular dementia. She continued to read until shortly before the final months of her life. She read much simpler books than she had read in her earlier years, and she rarely finished them. I suspect she forgot what happened in chapter one by the time she reached chapter three, but so long as she took pleasure from the process, it was worthwhile to her. It must have been. She requested a new supply each week and seemed to enjoy the effort. Reading was the fundamental activity of her life. The nurses told us that she was the only patient on the dementia ward that they had ever seen reading. The others watched television, which she ignored.