I was so pleased to come home from work today to see my gift had arrived. I was delighted to see it was beautifully wrapped and had a letter, which I read first. This got me very, very excited about the gift.

First, I got excited about the idea of a garlic farm. WHAT could be in the garlic farm gifts??? I had no idea (at this point!), but I was pretty flipping excited. See, I love food, and I especially love local things that aren't available everywhere. So to receive goodies from the Isle of Wight that I could eat... yes. So much yes. And I loved hearing about my Santa's trip to Osborne House and I could imagine that I would have equally been excited about the labrador and all the fancy rooms!

Then I read next that the next thing was fairy tale-esque... and a piece of bespoke artwork BY MY SANTA. At this point, I couldn't contain myself and I opened everything.

First: GARLIC. Black garlic! This is something I've never tried, which is surprising, because I love garlic and I love gourmet goodies like this. I'm super tempted to just eat one plain, but I have also started looking up some awesome recipes for this. Even just a simple bruschetta must be amazing with this kind of treat!

Second: Celebration Chutney! As I make the bread for our house, I'm going to bake a bread specifically to go with the flavours of this chutney. I cannot wait to have a liberal spread of it on some toast. I LOVE spiced things and so I know I will enjoy this.

THIRD AND SUPER AMAZING: LOOK AT THIS ARTWORK I RECEIVED! =D Is it not the most beautiful thing ever? It is so PERFECT for me and beautifully fairy-tale. I really, really love this and I'm going to put it up on the mantelpiece in my study space. I research fairy tales (and food, hence the love for the above =P), so this just makes my study area atmospheric. And I don't know if it is based on some of the pictures of me on my profile, but my boyfriend did comment that it had a likeness to me when I wear my hair curly, so even if it isn't, I'm going to choose to think that this is what I would look like if I grew horns and became a member of the fae.

I've also stalked my Santa's artwork and I just want to say that it is all absolutely stunning and I feel so lucky to have received this from her. =)

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Santa!