"It says 'Fragile!' It must be Italian..."

In college there was nothing better than getting a little slip in my mailbox telling me to stop by the post office because someone had sent me a package. Especially when I hadn't recently been online-shopping at the library instead of writing literary critiques, figuring out the periodic table or researching the psychology of criminals (I was kind of all over the place with majors and minors).

December of my freshman year, late for class, I got one of those magical tickets and decided swinging by the package window would be worth being even later for lecture.

Big mistake.

Mostly because it was a BIG package. And it turns out you can't give a package back to the P.O. to hold for you once you've picked it up (stupid federal postal laws).
The box was 4 ft long and wide enough that I couldn't fit it under one arm while I half slid, half sprinted across the frozen quad to class.

By the time I burst into the classroom the professor had already started but paused to turn and stare with every single student in the room at me and my box. "It says 'Fragile!' It must be Italian..." Mortified I mumbled an apology toward the podium and tried to sneak into a desk. And failed. People kept quoting A Christmas Story and laughing until the professor finally said something.

"I can see we won't be getting anything done until we all find out what is in that box. Caley? Would you like to open it?"

So, my classmates and I peeled off the packing tape and opened the box. Inside was a perfect, little, 3 foot tall Christmas tree pre-lit with tiny lights and with a wicker basket base.

It got a few OOO's, a couple of AWW's, and one, "I thought it was going to be a leg lamp." Face red from the cold outside and the attention inside I read the tag tied to a branch, smiled and said, "It's from my sister."

We plugged it in and left it in the corner for the rest of lecture. Every year since then it has come out of storage soon after Thanksgiving to light up my dorm rooms, apartments, and houses.


Even though a few of the bulbs are now burned out and the wicker has some cracks, it is still my favorite Christmas present ever.