It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It goes without saying that I have the best friends in the world.

THIS is my very first Christmas tree here in Italy, which arrived just this moment by courier, a "get in the spirit!" gift from UBlend.

It's hard to see details in the pic, but it's decorated with purple stars, brightly colored balls, and all these darling dangly women ornaments saying things like "If the shoe fits, buy it in every color" and "New shoes, red wine, big diamond rings... these are a few of my favorite things!" All being held in the arms of a cuddly personalized bear (I was there when the bear was 'born' but that's a longer story... suffice it to say, it's nice to see the finished product for my very self!).

As I unwrapped it, I got a little misty: I'm a total sucker for 'thoughtful'. And I love having the non-traditional Christmas house ... purple, pink, orange, and silver this year. It's like he read my mind.

I just called to thank him. Of course, there's a saga behind everything: the (protectionist) Italian government won't let you ship "toys" into Italy so he had to fill out the customs form twice at the post office ('go back in line, do a new form, and we'll pretend we didn't have this conversation'). I laughed as he described it to me: "okay, so it's not a stuffed animal, it's a PILLOW."

And on this end, the courier collected a 22.61 Euro customs fee from me. Probably because of the clandestine bear. But it was MORE than worth it for my dose of Christmas cheer from the States.