So, I . . . I don't know what to say. Every single gift that arrived for this Arbitrary Day Plus gave me a tiara moment (if confused, find .gif or clip of Amy Farrah Fowler getting tiara ;) ). Every. Single. Gift. It started with the arrival of two boxes from Barnes and Noble, a bookstore I love, not least because they let me put as many chocolate and espresso shots in frappuccinos as I want, but because they totally don't mind if book-crazed patrons hang out all day browsing their wares. Then, I opened the boxes, one small but quite heavy, the other one big but lightweight. BOTH gifts were wrapped and I was super excited to see that, because it prolongs the suspense, and paper makes such interesting crinkly sounds and gives presents enticingly mysterious shapes. "The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last!" quote is pretty apt. You know something's coming, you don't know what, it's bound to be wonderful, you can't wait, but the waiting is delicious. To prolong that feeling as long as possible, I started to open the envelopes that were tucked inside instead of the presents, but then the writing advised - just in time - that these held packing slips and not to open them before the gifts.*

So I started with the one with the heartwarming shape and weight of a really good book, or possibly dictionary. And OH MY GOSH! A leatherbound edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes! You couldn't know - could you? somehow? Are you psychic, Santa? - how much I've been coveting this specific edition ever since B & N came out with it. It's ALL the shorts and ALL the novels in this lovely leather cover with gilt-edged pages and gilt borders and gilt titles and iconic imagery from the canon worked into the design AND a spiffy old-fashioned ribbon for marking pages - OHHHHH!

This was the first tiara moment.

Next up, the bigger one with the odd shape. I just touched the top part which looked like it had the loosest tape, and the paper started glowing, and then - that sound. The sound that makes a Whovian's hearts leap with joy. The sound where when you hear it in the wild you look around, face full of hope, watching for a blue box to appear out of thin air. The TARDIS materializing sound. OH MY GOSH AGAIN!

The paper didn't survive. I have a TARDIS cookie jar! I have a TARDIS cookie jar! I have a TARDIS cookie jar! I couldn't believe it. I kept cackling, and tapping the lantern on the top, waiting for it to turn out not to be there, half afraid I was having some kind of incredibly lucid hallucination. But it didn't leave, thank golly! I have been pining for the TARDIS cookie jar for ages and now I have a TARDIS cookie jar!

That was the second tiara moment.

Santa had mentioned a third gift was also coming, and warned me it might take a while after the first two. A day later, I caught the postal lady dropping off a big envelope from Boomerang Booksellers in Massachusetts. I was still reeling from Sherlock and the Tardis the day before and didn't know what to expect. And, and, and, OH MY GOSH TIMES THE THIRD!

A picture book in a crisp plastic protective sleeve, with a beautiful princess and dragon curled around the cover, illustrated by the best picture book artist EVER, Trina Schart Hyman. I'd honestly never known about 'Children of the Dragon' before, so I was double gobsmacked. Also, it's chock full of fairy tales from Vietnam! This one book covered at least six things from my likes list - picture book art (yep I'm strange), Hyman's artistry, dragons, tigers, fairy tales, learning about other cultures - there's even an origin story for monsoons (I also love really dramatic weather)! The more I read and re-read the more amazed I am.

This was the third tiara moment.

You know what else? Guys, it's a first edition.

Thus a fourth tiara moment.

One more thing, something I never in a million years would have expected to see, the thing where I shrieked aloud, "Holy Tardis of Gallifrey!" about a hundred times over and was so excited I went on shrieking about it on Twitter and Goodreads and Facebook - 'Children of the Dragon', this beautiful, pristine, first edition, Trina Schart Hyman book, is signed. And dated. It's signed and dated. Favorite illustrator's fingerprints are on this book. She wrote beautiful artistic handwriting on this book. I . . . I . . . I . . . Must honor and respect pages. Must handle only with begloved hands. Must somehow figure out how to breathe backwards while reading.

Fifth, biggest tiara moment out of all the tiara moments.

It took me a while to come down from the rainbow. Of PURE JOY. At least, enough to read 'Children of the Dragon'. Got to about page 18 -

And suddenly, there I was, crying. Couldn't help it. It just hit me - my Santa went to so much effort and thought to find every one of these perfect gifts. So many things I wrote in my likes, to the point of exuberant excess, and you went above and beyond to cover so much. You wrote a friendly message. You had the presents wrapped, and wrote (or had written?) nice notes on each one. Forgive me for writing this in another language, but the English won't do the feelings justice - "Kandou shitemasu. Ureshikute ureshikute namida ga chotto . . . Taihen, arigatou gozaimashita, Santa-san."

I hope your Santa is as wonderful as mine was :)