What the Dickens.

This isn’t actually a blog about Dickens, although, yes, I love his works. At least all that I have read. This blog is about a particular gift I received.

My youngest son’s fiancée, Lauren, gave me a beautiful wooden advent calendar several years back. The days leading up to Christmas are numbered on the front on twenty-four little drawers. She has filled the drawers in the past with chocolate and themed objects, the first year being Winnie-the-Pooh, which included snippets and quotes on small, rolled papers as well as adorable Winnie, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet charms and erasers. The next year was a Charlie Brown theme. Plenty of Snoopy and Woodstock, as well as Charlie and his friends. Each year’s efforts have reflected an obvious labor of love. Opening those little drawers to find out the items secreted inside has been a great pleasure.

This year, though, Lauren chose Dickens, a theme which went above and beyond. Not only did I find memorable quotes from Charles Dickens’ works, but also biographical snippets, including little-known (to me, anyway) facts. There were also the wonderful chocolates. However, the most amazing find in these drawers were the miniature books Lauren handcrafted. No more than an inch high, she had printed the resized illustrations (which I believe she might have purchased on Etsy?), painstakingly cut them out and then glued them into tiny editions of some of Dickens’ classics. So that I wouldn’t lose them, she also made a tiny little crate to store them in. This crate with the volumes now sits in my curio cabinet with my other favorite things.

All in all, I had a very nice Christmas again this year, and not just because of the gifts given to me by Lauren, my three sons (Derek, Mike and Mark) and my daughter-in-law, Charisse, but because we were all together. Without rush. Without fuss. Plenty of smiles. Plenty of laughter. Plenty of love.

I hope those who read this were as fortunate and blessed. Merry Christmas. Because yes, although Christmas has passed for this season, the sentiment lives on.