the most amazing gift ever!

Oh my goodness!  Jiminy cricket!!  Merlin's beard!!!

The words are not enough to express how surprised I was and how excited I was! Yesterday I received the most amazing gift from our friends Kristian and Jenni. 

We’ve known Kristian for many years now through karate training and have shared so much laughter and joy together. Some months ago, he got married to his charming partner Jenni, so I gave a pair of my Hanetsubo gold goblets to this young couple as a small gift. They popped over to our house yesterday bringing their thank you gift for the return. How sweet of them! And guess what they brought? 

A book of my blog! Featuring a whole year of my writings and images up to the recent blog anniversary, with carefully considered layout and everything! How awesome is that? They thought it would be a shame my blog to be stuck only in the internet so put them together into this beautiful book. What a generous idea and I absolutely LOVE it. As I looked through the pages, all those memories that I recalled have turned into a big smile on my face. 

Not just that! At the end of the book, there are wonderful messages from my blog friends! Apparently Kristian had E-malied to them and has collected those kind messages. What a stunning thought and gesture! All the effort Kristian and Jenni have put into this book made it so precious to me. Of course my husband and I did not know any of this until yesterday. You can imagine how much we were surprised! Honestly, I was s p e e c h l e s s ! 

Thank you so much for your beautiful words, my blog friends Kat, Varonika, Mary, Julie, Flora, Suzanne, Onneke, Wini, Tika, Concetta, Claire and Paula! 

A beautiful card from Kristian and Jenni

Thank YOU sooooooooooooooo much Kristian and Jenni! I am so pleased to have such wonderful friends. xm