A tea-sachet holder from Richard, in use on Kelly's desk

The gift-giving season isn't the easiest time of year for many of us. It's not full of "I found the perfect gift that will tell you just how much I love you" moments.  Often times you experience more "I'm so stressed out; I hope you forgive me for this less than perfect gift" moments. (Unless you count the time I designed a beer stein for my dad's homecrafted brew. That was perfect.)

Richard, founder and owner of two leaves and a bud tea. co., passed out some small gifts to those of us who work in the office. We each got a tea sachet-holder, for lack of a better term, made by a local potter. Maybe Richard is sick of watching us over-steeping our tea at our desks, because we don't have good places to put a used sachet that we might want to use again. But it was a good gift. See photo, at left.

I started thinking how easy it can be to buy a gift for a tea lover. Sure, there's tea, but then there are plenty of tea accoutrement to outfit your tea lover with — electric kettle, tea pot, brew basket for loose tea, mugs, honey spoon, and on and on. My favorite page on our website is the one that describes "Tea Gifts and Goodies."

Bess, Gigi, Lindsay and Richard open a package from Sri Lanka

I know it's a little late (Christmas is the day after tomorrow, in terms of when I'm posting this) to be telling you where to get great gifts for the tea lover in your life. There's no doubt, however, that I'll be reminding you about tea gifts for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Flag Day, Columbus Day ... you get the picture.

On Monday we received a delightful box of gifts from the factory in Sri Lanka where some of our tea is packed. There was a picture book on Sigiriya (a beautiful archaeological site), floating candles and pretty note cards (see photo, at right). What's certainly true about the gift-giving season is that giving and receiving is a gesture of a treasured relationship.

Happy holidays from all of us. Wherever you are, we hope you're celebrating the spirit of the season with a great cuppa tea clutched in one hand. Cheers!

It snowed in the Roaring Fork Valley this morning, so we tromped outside to take this holiday photo. From left, Jen (who now lives in New Jersey), Naomi, Gigi, Richard, Lindsay, Kelly and Bess.