The smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen slowly wakes me from my sleep. I open my eyes to see my best friend lying on the pillow next to me, panting and staring at me like she’s been waiting her whole life for me to wake up. She whimpers and scoots closer to me, licks my face and stands up waiting for me to get out of bed and take her out for her morning constitutional. “Yes, Elsie I’m coming.” I extend my arms above my head and straighten out my legs and stretch off the angst riddled sleep. “Would there be another package on the porch?” I ask myself.

Elsie jumps off the bed and heads straight for the front door, turns around to make sure I’m coming and when she sees me pulling my hoodie over my head, she knows it’s go time. I walk to the front door, slide my feet into the purple fuzzy uggs my fiancé got me for Christmas, grab the leash from the hook as Elsie sits and patiently waits for me to hook her up. I grab my sunglasses and accidentally knock the previous day’s gift off the hall tree shelf. The snow globe featuring a quaint New England village, shatters on the tiled floor, snow and glitter go everywhere. “Oh for fucks sake,” I mumble. I’ll deal with this when I get back. I open the door and there’s a gift wrapped box sitting on my doormat, bigger than the previous packages. I move it out of the way and get Elsie to her spot on the front yard so she can do her business. I glance around the house and street to see if there are any unfamiliar cars or anything out of place and see nothing out of the ordinary. She gently pulls the leash indicating it’s time we get to our morning walk. As we proceed to the sidewalk, I have this strange feeling that we’re being watched. I look towards the house diagonally across the street from ours and see slight movement in the curtains of one of the upstairs rooms. I immediately get chills, shake my head and we continue walking down the snow covered sidewalk.

When we return to the house, I stop and pick up this morning’s gift. Elsie shakes off and waits for me to open the door. We walk across the threshold and I unhook her leash. She makes a beeline for the kitchen in anticipation of her breakfast. In the process, she steps in the snowflakes from the quaint village that is shattered across the front hallway floor and spreads it everywhere. I place the package on the bench, slide my boots off, return the leash to it’s hook and my sunglasses onto the shelf. I pick the package back up and bring it into the kitchen with me, placing it on the counter as I open the refrigerator to retrieve the creamer for my coffee. I grab my favorite, oversized coffee mug, pour the creamer in and then the coffee. That first sip warms me up and I proceed to the package. It’s perfectly wrapped in paper adorned with polar bears ice skating with red scarves and matching winter hats. I slide my finger between the tape and paper, opening it gently and neatly. “What the fuck? How would anyone know I’d need this?” I pull the dust buster out of the box and stare at it in confused disbelief. Elsie starts growling and her fur stands on end as she lets out a loud and ferocious German shepherd bark. I turn around to see what she’s barking at and there he was, standing at the front door looking in the window. I dropped the gift and screamed.