When I opened the side door Wednesday morning before dawn to go fill the bluebird feeder with mealworms, I stumbled over two boxes left overnight in freezing weather.
They were delivered in boxes with the big smile logo and what looks to me like a thrown Australian boomerang on the right side of the smile.
I initially panicked, trying to recall if we had ordered any live leopard geckos, fancy imported wine from the hillsides of France or 12-foot fruited orange trees — the stuff that will die, burst or wilt- to-death when left on a freezing porch overnight.
Grabbing the light-weight boxes, I recognized with immediate relief that these boxes held the “gold, frankincense and myrrh” of my daughter’s Christmas lists every year since they could sit upright: books. To the dismay of porch-stealing thieves — unless they are secretly also bibliophiles, they would be quite disappointed in a Mangas home heist.
Opening these boxes reminded me that every year, whether in a local bookstore or ordering a unique book online, I get to inhale the scent of each of my daughter’s personalities when I open the hard- and softcovers and read a bit from the books that were on their Christmas list.
By peeking into “Shoe Dog,” a memoir by Phil Knight, the creator of Nike, I inhaled that Aly is a lifelong student of business and an encourager of people. Similarly, Austin Kleon’s “Keep Going: Ten Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad” is a fun read, and if dusted for fingerprints could coincidentally contain mine. Aly also asked for “Find The Why,” a workbook by Simon Sinek which is a “practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team.” I’m fairly certain I will have to wrap this fast for fear I might be tempted to make my own personal color- coded notes in it (Aly has her own personal color-coding system.)
Last year, Chloe requested Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove.” I unabashedly admit having accidentally read this No. 1 New York Times bestselling novel before wrapping it and giving it to her for Christmas.
This year, Chloe’s list included Backman’s novel “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry.” It was promptly delivered and in case you were wondering before I gift- wrap it ( in a few days), Chapter 1 entitled “Tobacco” begins: “Every seven-year-old deserves a superhero. That’s just how it is. Anyone who doesn’t agree needs their head examined. That’s what Elsa’s granny says, at least.”
Chloe probably won’t have to worry about me pre-reading the book by Travis Christofferson, “Tripping Over the Truth: How the Metabolic Theory of Cancer is Overturning One of Medicine’s Most Entrenched Paradigms” — at least not before Christmas.
One doesn’t need to be a private detective to deduce what our third-born Phoebe has on her mind by reading her book titles: “Enneagram Type 7: The Entertaining Optimist”, by Beth McCord; “Becoming Us: Using the Enneagram to Create a Thriving Gospel-Centered Marriage,” and Henri J. M. Nouwen’s “The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life.”
I wish you a book-filled Christmas season.
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
