So today (January 8) my neighbor called. He told me there'd been a package for me at his house for a couple of days already. It turns out the 'you-weren't-here' delivery notice got stuck in the bristles of my delivery slot-- I swear that gets me at least once a year! So first of all, dear Santa: I am sorry for this late post! If I'd paid better attention I could have had it up a few days ago already!

The entire package instantly shows a lot of care was put into it [1]. It is packaged securely, and the insides just ooze attentive care [2]. After making a few photos of the unpacking process and package contents, I instantly started out by reading the included card [3]. Without going into the details of (personal) discourse leading up to this moment, all I can say is that I very much appreciate the time my Santa has taken to assemble this gift. (I marked their gift as 'Not Received' at one point after the RG email startled me into taking action for administrative reasons, but I felt like a right ass after I had had an opportunity to reflect on the way that might be perceived by my Santa. Hopefully my unpacking diary can make up for any frustration this gave my Santa just a little bit!)

Anyways, back to the gifts which I am carefully unwrapping with care I can only hope matches the care that was taken to wrap them originally. From smallest to largest...

1) The cute little cylinder turned out to be Salt & Caramel Chocolate Coated Liquorice from LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW [4]. I love all those things separately, yet I have never combined them... so consider me intrigued. (I'll go on a merry tasting trip after this post is up, because chocolate gets messy and knowing myself I won't be able to stop once I start to enjoy them... and this post is way overdue as it is!)

2) The small gift package is handmade chocolate from from 'TEMPER CHOKOLADE', a Danish chocolatier that I suspect may just be my Santa's guilty pleasure [5]. Why do I think so? The card hints it a little, but just Look. At. Those. Chocolates. They look like the sort of irresistable sinful delight you can't forget about after tasting it! (The same caveat applies: clean fingers must be preserved so this post can go up sooner rather than later...)

3) Behind the starry night sky that wraps this gift, an extra layer protection lurks. After getting rid of this extra layer, I find myself facing a fancy Bodum travel mug [6] that makes me feel like my future travels will have my fellow travelers downgrading their tickets just to be able to back in its radiance! My nose however detected a faint scent - yes, I applied the sniff test to my packages, doesn't everyone?! - and inside is a baggy filled with tea leaves [7] that ooze such an aromatic scent that I can already tell I will love the tea it brews! I may or may not end up having to find ways to make Santa send me more next year, bahaha! (I would go taste it right now, but I am a lazy person with relatively low standards who lives off of the bagged kind... and finding the tea filter I almost never use will be too lengthy an affair to make this a post-posting enjoyment together with the liquorice and tempered chocolates!)

4) Well, this one was a rollercoaster for sure! I completely forgot to write as I was unpacking..! My first surprise was that my old technique of removing the ribbon didn't quite work out; it kept getting stuck. I was already of half a mind to just get the scissors when my saner mind realized the reason it would not was because the ribbon is in fact a part of the package itself [8]! The 'outside' is a wonderful christmas-themed handkerchief with two of the corners having the ribbons attached. The outside I had been able to see since the very beginning has tons of happy little snowmen in all sorts of funny poses that made me laugh. The 'inside' is dark blue with white and pink patterns of flowers and other wonderful patterns. I really like the way it looks [9]!

It was so amazing that I had almost forgotten about the actual thing this 'wrapper' was wrapping! After working my way through the brown wrapping paper - which didn't survive nearly as well as the others because I was still giddy from the handkerchief! - I was faced with a gift that I cannot even put to words. Mind blown... [10]!

This is an honest-to-God leatherbound notebook with two pencils (2B & 6B) and two fine line waterproof inking pens (0.2mm & 0.7mm). Smelling the leather alone is perhaps the only possible smell that could be more divine than the tea leaves of which the scent I can still just by thinking about it. Maybe I am weird for liking the way leather smells? [11] Anyway, the yellowish pages - leatherbound, ofcourse! - have this rough style to them that is very suitable. I am not sure if the pages are meant to be a bit weathered - they are a little warped as if some water had gotten to them at one point, but I honestly think this just gives it that bit more character that just the bundles of paper inside the leather cover was lacking [12].

And this is where I face my biggest problem: my drawing aspirations have mutilated stickfigure-kind often enough to have become non-existent, so I either need to take some lessons and rekindle a passion from a very long goneby youth, or I use this for writing whatever stories pop up into my mind. Or perhaps a diary? I've never done one of those. Regardless of the exact purpose, this will see use, I promise!

(Whew. Done just in time for the coming of dusk not to ruin the pictures, but the overview shot is going to have to be in my hallway to avoid nasty shadows!)

Thank you very much for these excessive gifts [13], Santa! You've made a dark January day into one filled with wonder!

~Black_Handkerchief

P.S.: I wish I could make out your name on the card to put a 'face' to the generosity I have received, but I unfortunately struggle an unreasonable amount with handwritten texts causing me to rely a lot on context. Alas: Danish names are not my strong suit! xD I'll figure something out.