It's been a wet, dreary day today and we've spent most of it on the couch. Apparently the mailman didn't knock or ring the bell when he came to let me know a package was here so when I opened the door to go out this evening, I nearly tripped over the box wedged between the front door and the storm door!

Customs was kind enough to thoroughly examine this box and the contents. I was a bit worried but everything was safe and they retaped the box pretty well so that was nice of them.

So now onto the awesomeness.

Chocolate. OMG the chocolate. EIGHT giant 250 g bars of different flavors of Whittaker's chocolate - fruit and nut, dark bittersweet block, hokey pokey pieces in milk chocolate block, creamy milk chocolate block, kiwi in milk chocolate, berry and biscuit in chocolate block, rum and raisin and, my most favorite flavor in all of the chocolate flavors: Ghana peppermint in dark chocolate! Not gonna lie - I am currently destroying the chocolate mint and this is some super delicious chocolate!

A kiwi hat! With a beak! And ear flaps! It's super cute and since we are in the midst of ridiculous winter, I am so happy to have this because I have a mile and a quarter walk from the train to my office every morning and this will keep my ears warm. Yay for fleece lining on the inside!

Last but not least, an amazing cookbook: The Great New Zealand Cookbook! This is a gorgeous cookbook with fantastic photos to accompany the recipes. I like that it runs a wide array of food styles and a lot of different flavors and I can't wait to give the recipes in this book a whirl! Even better, I am hoping that we make it to New Zealand next year and now I have some ideas about some of the local chefs so I can plan the food odyssey - rather plan the rest of the things we do on that trip around the fantastic food!

Thank you so much, Santa - I hope you had a wonderful holiday and happy new year!