Best. Ornament. EVER!

I have this tradition with some of my friends from the MAT program I completed this summer. There are six of us who managed to get teaching jobs near Milledgeville, where we went to grad school, and every week we get together for dinner and tales of teaching (the good, the bad, and the ugly). A few weeks ago, we decided to do a Secret Santa gift exchange, rather than having everyone worrying about getting a gift for everyone else in the group. I unhelpfully listed "books" as my desired gift, because I'm a voracious reader and really not that picky. Lo and behold, my friend Annie pulled my name out of the hat (literally!) and pretty much picked out the perfect gift:


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which I've been wanting to read anyway) as a GRAPHIC NOVEL. It's too awesome, and I'm insanely pleased by it.

"But wait," you say. "What's that small green folded thing in the bottom right-hand corner?"

That, my blog-pals, is the second-awesomest thing I got tonight. See, every week, we pick a different restaurant. This week, someone suggested Chinese. Not my favorite, but lord knows I talk them into eating Mexican enough, so whatever. I actually really enjoyed my Spicy Bean Curd, and I have enough leftovers for the next 2-3 days. We were leaving to pay, and I noticed that there was a Christmas tree near the cash register decorated with origami ornaments. On closer inspection, I realized quite a few of them were Yoda! I asked the guy at the register if I could buy one, and he told me to take one off the tree gratis, provided I come back to eat again. How great is that?

A closer look:



And just cause that guy was so nice: if you're ever in Milledgeville, Georgia, and looking for a place to eat, I highly recommend Lieu's Peking Restaurant. Maybe next time I'll talk him into teaching me how to make one of these myself.