This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise and I may have gotten a bit carried away in my excitement as I made no effort whatsoever to conceal what a diehard Trekkie I am in my notes to my Santa. Imagine, then, how excited I was when my mail carrier arrived today and delivered a not insubstantial box with the ThinkGeek logo all over it. Opening the box revealed two items which made me giggle like a kid on Christmas morning and frightened my cat who had, by then, appeared to lay claim to the now-empty box.

Somehow, in all of my rambling about being an historian and a sci-fi geek, my delightful Santa managed to pick up on the fact that I also like to cook and bake and otherwise just potter around in the kitchen. With this in mind, he gifted me with a fantastic Vulcan salute oven mitt and a set of Star Trek-themed cookie cutters. The third installment of the reboot films is coming out next Friday and I'd planned to have a viewing party of the first two films on Thursday evening to gear up for it. I can't wait to use both of these wonderful gifts to make some space-themed cookies for my guests while we geek out in front of the tv.

So thank you, Santa, for this fabulous gift. I'm only sorry I can't send you a batch of cookies in return!

LLAP, my friend.