It Came From a Land Down Under

I got a box a week ago, a big box.

It sat on the floor without me examining the contents beyond looking to see if anything was broken, for about a week while I worked on getting things wrapped and shipped. I finally opened it over the weekend. The girls had inspected the exterior thoroughly, but when Mija fell into the box trying to get one of the closed flaps open, they left it alone.

I wish I could have gotten a photo of a cat with packing peanuts attached to her fur. Oh the indignity.

The box came from Australia where my friend, Amber, lives. It was packed with all sorts of goodies. First of all, we have these.

When we talk about food, she often mentions Tim Tams. My remark is an erudite, "Huh?" She wondered if they would melt since they are two wafer cookies with a chocolate moussey center covered in chocolate. Oh dear me. It's a good thing we don't have these here. Seriously. Very seriously. I preferred the one on the right, the all chocolate version. The mint in the one on the left was a bit strong for me. I took them to work and my co-workers liked them. They said they wouldn't eat them all the time, but they fit the spirit of Christmas. I would snarf, inhale, the ones on the right without a second thought, they were so good.

After that came a birthday present.

I have not opened this, yet. Here's the back of the box.

I have never seen anything like this anywhere and I like to think I'm up on the off-beat, weird, more than a little askew gifts. This makes me giddy with excitement. Creating my own garden gnome? How awesome can this be? After Christmas, when things are  more quiet, this gets my full attention. Arise my gnome army! Time to take over the world!

There was also a Christmas present down in the bottom of the box.

For sure that string wrap got played with. I have other gifts piled on top of this box now so Mija, in particular, can't attack the bauble any more than she's done.

Thanks to the Internet and World of Warcraft, I have a dear friend in Australia. The world might be more homogenized than we'd like to admit, but there are very easy ways to send a piece of you and a piece of where you come from to someone half-way around this globe. I hold these gifts and I think of Amber standing in a store in Australia. Australia! Now, here they are in my living room in North America. I tell myself that some day we will meet. I hope that's true. For now, I am very content to hold these gifts and know that she picked them out for me. To me, it feels like a part of her was in that box along with packing peanuts that stuck to Mija.

Beverage:  Darjeeling Tea

Deb