Happiness is...

Do you know what Monster High dolls are?  No?  Let me give you a quick primer: they're about the size of a Barbie, but they're teen-aged children of the "monsters" we all know from literature and movies.  Dracula's daughter is Draculaura, Cleo de Nile is the daughter of The Mummy, Gholia Yelps is the daughter of a Zombie, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?  Well, Jackson Jekyll is the son of Dr. Jekyll and Holt Hyde is the son of Mr. Hyde. You get it.  The list goes on and on.  It's pretty clever actually.

DD2 has wanted the "Monster High Abbey Bominable Doll with Pet Wooly Mammoth" since October.  You can probably guess that Abbey Bominable is the daughter of the Yeti.  She is a foreign exchange student at Monster High - her native language is "yetish".  DD2 adores this character. She wore the Abbey Bominable costume for Halloween.  She has been searching for the "original Abbey" since she found out about her last fall. We have been unable to find it for less than about $75.00 - which, no.  I'm sorry.  Not going to happen.  Wanted to get it as a surprise for her at Christmas, but the price only went up. 

She got an amazon gift card from her uncle for Christmas - and she's been wanting Abbey.  She checks regularly on amazon.  She gets discouraged regularly too.

So, about two weeks ago we were looking on amazon, and I noticed that - while not the original - there was a character from the "Skull Shores" series.  (Oh, they have different "series" of each dolls: the original dolls, "Dead Tired" slumber party series, "Sweet 1600" party edition dolls, "Skull Shores" beach series, etc. This could be endless.)  Abbey the actual doll is the same, but no pet woolly mammoth, and the outfit is different.  HOWEVER... they sell additional outfits for the dolls (of course they do), so that they can have even MORE series options - but without having to buy new dolls each time.  There is a "School Clubs" series of outfits, of which Abbey is a part of the Snowboarding Club.  (Of course she is.)  SOOO, I pointed out that if she got the Skull Shores Abbey, and the Snowboarding outfit, she could still have a "winter" Abbey, just not the original.

She loved the idea.  So I helped her with the purchase (she still has some money left over in her amazon account now, bonus), and the shipping instructions said 2-4 weeks.  So I told her that she'd probably have them in time for Spring Break.  Not what she wanted to hear, but she's waited this long... what is another two weeks.

Or, as it would turn out, FOUR DAYS.  Abbey showed up in our mailbox in 4 days.  COUNTING the weekend.  Not special shipping or anything.  I think the "company" selling this toy through amazon must be a garage based business down the street from us or something.  Crazy.

BUT, what a wonderful surprise.

Then, since the doll arrived so quickly, she started checking the mail EVERY DAY for the package that was the winter outfit. 

So cute.  Watching her check the mail box every afternoon. Made all the cuter because this wasn't a present from someone... this was something she had purchased with her own money.  Which made it all the more special for her.

And then?  On Wednesday?  It happened. 

She and I arrived home, she ran to check the mail, and shouted, "It's here! It's here!  My package.  It's here!"  Then, with arms full of package and mail, she ran for the house.  I hope I never forget the image of her, the back of her anyways, running through the garage and repeating, "I've been waiting, and it's here!  Abbey will be so excited."  Just so cute.

She dumps the armful of mail on the table, and with a huge smile grabs the scissors and opens the big padded envelope that is her package.  Addressed to her.  Then, with a giant smile and look of wondrous anticipation, she pulled the doll outfit out of the envelope and did a little happy dance (which still looks like 'the potty dance' to me, so I get confused sometimes), and hugged it to her chest.

If I had ever wondered what pure joy looked like?  There it was, right in front of me.  And I will never let that image out of my head.