The Christmas Trove

Did you get any awesome loot for Christmas this year?  I sure did.  For one thing, I got lots of socks and other things of a practical bent.  Which was terrific.

But then, I was also given a smashing trove of exquisitely impractial material related to the subject matter of this blog!  To the extent that this blog has subject matter!  For instance, I received no fewer than four (4) sets of boring postcards, with two siblings, the parents, and Mrs.5000 all doing their part.  IT'S LIKE THEY KNEW WHAT I WANTED.  Then, on a somewhat grander scale, sisterjen gave me:

Art... postcard... book!  It's a threefer!  I think it will serve as a coffee table book for a while, before going on to a second life as postcards.

Mrs.5000 really poured it on.  For instance, do you think I might enjoy the lavishly illustrated World Encyclopedia of Flags?

Sure, it has historical material.  Sure, it discusses every country's flag in depth.  But it also covers sub-national flags...

...and has killer vintage flag images.  Yummy.

Then we have the DK Ultimate Visual Dictionary, which I highly recommend for anyone who is interested in everything.

Did she stop there?  No, she did not.  She continued on with an Elements calendar!

It's really quite lovely, even if, with only 12 months to work with, it has to leave a few elements out.  It's funny, though, because it has the Elements of the Month all wrong.  For instance, it has Bismuth for January.

But the Element of the Month for January isn't Bismuth.  It's Iridium.

Lastly, for my collection of vintage books about classical music, it the 1891 Famous Composers and their Works, Volume II!

It was edited by John K. Paine!  The guy who could be considered the first great American composer, if Received Opinion had some different starting assumptions!

Now, apparently Mrs.5000 purchased this book (for the excellent price of $3) at the Friends of the Library Book Sale a few months back. And apparently, when she tried to give it to me, I told her that she was crazy not to keep such an awesome find back as a Christmas gift.  And now that she mentions it, I do vaguely remember something of the sort happening in the happy excitement of the book sale.  But...  I sure was surprised.  And delighted!

Did you get anything awesome for Christmas?