A Cookbook Worth Crying Over

At my first shower (remember? the place mats?), there was one gift in particular that made me misty-eyed. I felt a little silly and overly dramatic as the tears welled in my eyes. But what can I say, I'm the sentimental type and this gift took an extra dash of preparation on the part of the gift giver, my sister-in-law Ashley.

To give you a little background, I read this blog every day. Love it. Her name is Ree, aka The Pioneer Woman. Her recipes are good, but what I enjoy most is her sense of humor. She has the ability to laugh at herself, which I find charming.

So, Ree has a cookbook:

How one woman can simultaneously raise four children, help run a ranch, write multiple blog posts daily and a compile a cookbook? ... well, the world may never know. But I've been wanting this cookbook pretty badly. I can't justify buying things like this for myself when I'm already spending out the wazoo on dresses, shoes, good hair, classy nails, accessories, etc. for showers and parties. It's only $30, but I still feel bad, and therefore, I've never gotten the cookbook.

Until my shower.

I unwrapped the cookbook, and was instantly excited. But then Ashley said, "Open it."

  (Ty and I thought this picture was really funny once we noticed my feet at the bottom of the shot. How horrible can one woman be with a phone camera ... and I took photography in college.)

And I flipped out. I think I said, "How did you do this?" about a dozen times. The signing wasn't necessarily what got my emotions. I just thought it was unbelievably thoughtful of Ashley to buy the cookbook, have Ree sign it and get it back to Shreveport in time for me to open it at the shower.

It's the most wonderful gift when someone goes the extra mile for you. I think that's what I loved most ... and then I very stealthily dried my eyes because I thought no one would understand why I was crying over a cookbook!!