Friday Feature: Under My Christmas Tree

 When I looked under the tree on Christmas, after all the unwrapping and ooh-ing and ah-ing had been completed, I had one thought.

My family knows me.

Admittedly, I'd given them a list, but even the off-list items were a good fit. My Christmas haul included warm socks, jewelry, stylus pencils for my iPad, stationery, chocolate, and a jigsaw puzzle of Stars Hollow, of Gilmore Girls fame.

Oh -- and books. The ones featured in the photo above, as a matter of fact.

I am not usually a cookbook kind of girl, but I actually bought the Colbert cookbook (Does This Taste Funny?) for myself and handed it to my husband to wrap and put under the tree. Colbert fan that I am, I devoured that book first. Though the recipes aren't our usual fare, I loved reading the stories that accompanied each of them, and I did manage to find one or two I'll actually try.

The Michael Storrings book (New York in Four Seasons) and the West Wing book (What's Next) also appeared under the tree thanks to none-too-subtle hints I dropped. I have a number of Michael Storrings jigsaw puzzles (I just finished one last week, as a matter of fact) and asked for (and received) two of his prints for my birthday. I'm looking forward to paging through the book in a leisurely, vacation-worthy fashion and savoring more of his work.

The West Wing book will require a bit more stamina, being more of a traditional read than the others (and a thick one at that), but I'm looking forward to it, nevertheless. My daughter, with whom I watched the show, was the one who made sure that book was among my treasures, and that made it even sweeter.

Given that I had a hand in what appeared under the tree, it might seem as though I'm giving my family too much credit (nah!). But what impressed me the most is this: not only is everything something I wanted (or, as in the case of a stationery item my daughter got for me, something I didn't even know I wanted, but I did) everything is useful (or edible). I'm at a stage in my life where I don't want flashy or showy things for Christmas anymore. I want things I can use, things that remind me of the giver, and things that don't require me to do a complete overhaul of my house in order to find them a home after the tree is down and put away. Little by little, I've been using each item, smiling as I do so, and then easily finding it a home when I'm finished -- something I wanted, but did not specifically ask for, making me appreciate it even more.

Low-key, lovely, and with joy that lingers after the last present is unwrapped. What more could I ask for?