I came in tonight from a girls' weekend in St. Louis and found a package waiting for me that said "Merry Christmas!" written in green Sharpie on the outside. Hmmmm....I thought "Well, I have ordered a couple of Christmas gifts but someone from Amazon is certainly overrun with the holiday spirit!" Wrong, the sender was definitely packing holiday spirit but the box wasn't from Amazon, it was from another of my favorite stores: The Amish Country Store in Branson. The punchline is I hadn't ordered anything from them lately. As Alice would say "curiouser and curiouser." Opening the box, I found a lovely note from Matt Hayes thanking me for supporting them as local merchants and a sleigh full of goodies!
OMG, I am so touched! Thanks Matt, your thoughtfulness really means the world to me. Completely unnecessary but beyond appreciated! I am so happy that your family and mine have crossed each others paths in life.
On top of the goodies, that I am trying to decide whether to share with family at the family Christmas dinner or just be selfish and save for Gene and I (oh, I'll probably share! They're all much to good to hoard for just us), there was a lovely cookbook ATaste of Ozark Mountain Christmas by Jan McCracken filled with recipes from her Branson Bed & Breakfast. Matt also mentioned in his note that he'd shared my blog addy with Jan and that she enjoys reading me. After flipping through the book and her web site www.janmccracken.com listing all of her books and tales of her B&B, I can say it's a mutual admiration society--way to go, Jan! I have to tell you that the first recipe I turned to was for eggnog fudge. My family members are not big chocolate fans so we're huge fans of non-chocolate fudges like peanut butter, maple, and opera but we ALL love eggnog so guess which recipe will be the first I try? THANK YOU! I have a feeling that one is going to become an instant family tradition.
You know, the world is full of wonderful people. I am so blessed to have been befriended by so many of them in life.
