It IS a Small World After All

Early yesterday morning I purchased a cookbook on eBay for Hubby’s Christmas stocking. I was pretty excited about this item, as it was one of the last things I needed to pick up, and I have a feeling that this particular one is one he’ll enjoy. We both love looking through cookbooks and picking out yummy recipes to try.  Some say we already have enough, but we would disagree!

Of course I didn’t mention this new one to him at all, as I want it to be a surprise.

So, imagine MY surprise when he greeted me at the door after work with the following question, “Did you buy a cookbook on eBay today?”

“Uh, yes?” I stammered. “How do you know that?”

“Because it was stuck in our mailbox when I got home from the office.” And sure enough, into my outstretched hands he plucked a brown paper package. On the front in magic marker it said EBAY COOKBOOK.

Last night I checked my email, and sure enough - there was a message from the eBay seller. He said that he lived three blocks away from us(!!!) and decided it would be a lot easier to just run it by our house than put it through the post.

We got a good laugh at the whole thing. It hadn’t occurred to me to look at the seller’s address so I had not expected we were neighbors. Needless to say, he has received stellar feedback for this transaction.

I love shopping on-line, especially at sites like eBay and Etsy. There are times though when those purchases seem so faceless, so impersonal…. This particular experience made the world wide web seem a little smaller – in a good way!

Hubby now knows that the cookbook is for him (he figured that out as soon as I refused to show it to him), but he’ll still get a little surprise when he sees just what cookbook it is. Hurrah!

Oh, how I love this time of year – full of fun little holiday surprises.