I was so excited when I got the notification that my SS had shipped my gift. I couldn't contain my excitement and patience is not my strongest feature. Lol.

So one day, I got called into work early. As I'm leaving my house, I pass a UPS truck. Out of curiosity, I checked my rear view mirror and see them put on their brakes and blinker. "Ooh. They're pulling off on the same side as the house. Ooh. I wonder.. Dang-it! That better not be it!"

Ding!

"Guess what just arrived."

Son of a..........

That night dragged on. I was at work for 9 hours while my SS gift sat at home all by it's lonesome. Finally, 10pm arrives and I am out of my work quicker than Roadrunner saying "meep meep". Get home and there's a note taped to one of the boxes, "wait for me to get up so I can watch you open them". My boyfriend works graveyard so he was asleep until 11. Check the clock, that gives me 45 minutes to kill. And I thought the last 9 hours dragged on.

Finally, I hear his alarm and as he walks into the living room, I am standing their like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I immediately dive in. Jackpot!

One of the coolest (sorry, falls second to my "I love men in uniform" superhero one) coffee mugs I've ever seen. "The greatest First Lines of Literature Ever". Awesome. I'm an avid reader (I guess a library of almost 4,000 books counts as avid, right?) and I love a good cup of coffee.

Now for the second package. Super jackpot! First thing on top is.. some kind of plastic jar. Hmm. Pick it up.. Yum! A container of powdered beef base for Pho. Ooh. Also with spice packets. I seriously can't wait to try this. I've not yet tried my hand at making Pho myself, so I'm hoping this will help. I just gotta find a small army to try it with me as the package makes approximately 20 bowls. Lol.

Okay, next on the list. Two books. Yay! More to add to the collection. Let's see what we have- "Basquiat: A Catahoula Dog Tale" and "No Children, No Guilt". I am beyond excited to read "Basquiat". It's about a couple who adopts a Catahoula (the breed of dog I have) from their local shelter and about the life they shared with him. I also got my Catahoula from a shelter and so it will probably hit close to home. And I've already started "No Children, No Guilt". With it being the holiday season, Bingos are inevitable and plentiful. Especially being staunchly childfree like my SO and I are. I do have some guilt over being childfree, so I'm hoping this will help.

I am absolutely blown away by my gifts. My family probably couldn't have picked out anything more me. Thank you so much for everything.