Surprises

I love surprises of the pleasant variety. And yesterday I had a surprise of the most pleasant variety indeed! The very lovely Antipo Déesse of Naughty Letters to Ms. Mac fame was so very kind to send me a package all the way from France for my birthday. Since Antipo is THE domestic goddess, her package was sure to contain the finest of sweet and savoury treats. And sure enough, when I finally opened her package there were two kilograms of the nicest treats that you could imagine.

Antipo decided that she would make it a competition and she most certainly has outdone the package of Canadian goodies that I sent to her for her birthday, which pale by comparison. (Apparently now the competition switches to the tackiest souvenirs, all because I said that all I really wanted was a NICE souvenir of the Eiffel tower. I believe that competition will be easy to win because we have some god-awful tacky souvenirs here in New Brunswick.)

So now we are enjoying all sorts of French delectables which Antipo most thoughtfully described in great detail in a mammoth epistle written on lavender-coloured parchment that nearly caused the loss of her writing hand. Her histories and descriptions of each item were wonderful and gave a real sense of appreciation to everything. Who would have thought that I was eating a small cake that was invented because of the plague?

The various taste sensations have been most enjoyable. So far my favourite has been the salted butter caramels from Brittany, which I could not stop devouring. Alas, they are now all gone! I cannot thank Antipo enough for her kindness and I feel very fortunate to have such a lovely penfriend. I am truly blessed!