Ok, so my cousin Susanna got married to a wonderful -and quite handsome- guy named Jeff this weekend and my aunt and uncle from VA drove in to be here for it. Well they carried precious cargo in their vehicle. I got my cousin Denise as my fall swap
giftee, as I guess she is, and I got to unload my gift on Saturday night. When I opened the box, this is what greeted me:

Well, to be honest, I couldn't see any of the mommy stuff with all the yummy jewelry and teeth in the way, but I saw the promise of great things to come. Little did I know how great.

So for F, as you see, is a "Fantastic read...if you ever have time!"
The word "read" is defined by Wiktionary as to be a party to the input and understanding of written information, or to look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.
Now that I know what reading is, or is supposed to be, I cannot wait to try it some time. In all seriousness, I own and have read many a Francine Rivers book in my day (has it really been over 8 years since I was able to read a good book? Oh my!) and I just LOVE her. I have not read this book and will pretend to need some good soaking baths in the near future in order to steal away to do so. Aunt Jan says it's a real page turner so it shouldn't take me long!

Then there was this package for making caramel "Apples for all 5 of the little apples of your eye." Well, Elijah just walked in and asked, "When are we going to celebrate the apples of your eye?" I will have to say, "Soon. Perhaps tomorrow." The package calls for apples and heavy whipping cream, so off to Wally World to get those ingredients and
mmm,
mmm, good!!!

"Two cute Leaf cookie cutters" made up the first "L" of the gift. Honestly I have never made a cookie that had to be cut out first, but then again, I didn't own ANY cookie cutters. Now I do. Fall cookies, here I come!

Is it
ok to say I have saved the best for last?!? What will go better with a good book and a hot bath than a nice cold drink? Yes, I take mine cold and yummy. Also included in my fabulous swap gift box, modeling nicely as the second "L" was this little
sweat heart gift card for a "Latte at Starbucks." I think I feel a good soak coming on tomorrow night!

This is the obstacle I had to overcome to get to all the F-A-L-L goodies in the box and have not decided yet whether to be thankful to my dear sweet cousin and all her little kiddies for the "exciting" times ahead in the
Svoboda household once my little kiddies get a hold of this glucose rush, or whether I should send the box "return to sender" with the sugar high safely on it's way back to good ol'
Virginny. I'll decide that later, but in the mean time, I am certain that I am thankful for the wonderful items that were hiding underneath the sugar shock. Thank you so much Denise! I seriously cannot wait to dive into a good read after all these years. I mean book. Read is what you do with it. ;-)