Tidings of comfort and joy

On Saturday morning I was getting ready to take my dogs for a walk in the freezing cold weather.  I opened the door and there was a box with my name on it!  My dogs are crazy, so I pushed the box right inside the door with my foot so I could continue the walk before Champ decided to take himself.  By the time I got back inside all I could think of was how I was going to warm up again after being outside.  I left the box in the middle of the entry way floor and wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fireplace.  After about 10 times of yelling, "No!" at Champ, I realized there was probably food in the box, but not sure if everything was wrapped I didn't want to open it before Christmas.  So I moved the box to the countertop so Champ couldn't paw at it anymore.  (Instead he tried with all his might to jump high enough to get the box to fall, no such luck on his part.)  Later that evening I was talking to my sister-in-law, Julie and asked her if the present was wrapped  to see if I could open the box.  She said, "It's not your Christmas present, open it you weirdo."

Glad to know I could open it before Christmas, I grabbed scissors and opened the box, which was taped really well I might add.  Part of me felt like I should wait for Tom to come home, but, well, I didn't.

Now for the sappy part.  I was filled with excitement when I first opened the package.  The top was covered in all sorts of treats!  I kept pulling more and more out of the box, it seemed never ending.  Goodie mixes, chocolate covered pretzels, treats I don't even know the names for, socks, refills for my Scentsy candle, a Christmas cd of Julie's favorite holiday music, window stickers, a really cool scrapbook foldy book (official name?), and last but not least, a copy of the cookbook from my Grandma Andersen.  She used to give the grandkids a copy for their first Christmas as a married couple along with a box of goodies (much like the one Julie sent).  I never got a copy of it and now I have one thanks to Julie and her hard work of putting together a whole care package to help me get into the holiday spirit.  I spent awhile last night just looking through the book, it was weird to see my grandmas handwriting, I even have a couple recipes in there from 12 year old Marissa who cooked better than 24 year old Marissa!  I'm excited to use it and am thankful for the great Christmas present from Julie.

Happy Holidays Everyone!