He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
He’s gonna find out
Who’s naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

It’s Christmas. A merry one to you, dear reader. Were all your expectations fulfilled? I hope so. Mine in fact, were highly exceeded. Not that I have any expectations to Xmas whatsoever. But this year I got a very special and thoughtful gift, I never expected in my boldest dreams. It might be just a picture to you, but it really moved me how I got this and the whole story behind it. And there must have been a grain of sand in my eyes.

And here’s the story:

When we went to lunch on the east side of the office, there’s of course a Starbucks. And on the way back from this Starbucks there’s a photographers shop in one of the side streets. One day we walked that street and I saw that picture in 40″/30″ hanging on the wall. Can you imagine I got hooked to it the second I saw it? From there on, every time we walked back from lunch from the east side, we walked that street, so I could check on the picture. This went on for about 2 years. It started almost the time we moved to 2 Park Avenue. Time went by and Xmas 2015 was knocking on the door. Dirk was looking for a Christmas gift for me. He went to the photographers store and asked for the picture. The photographer obviously wouldn’t give or sell it to him. (Screw him.) But he gave Dirk the contact and name of the photographer who took this picture. Dirk contacted him but the large picture wasn’t on sale and a print would have been $750. Then Dirk found out, that the photographer has published a book. And guess what? The picture is in that book. So he bought the book, cut the picture out and framed it. And now it is standing on my bookshelf. How about that?

I’m still speechless and overwhelmed and I would like to thank Dirk and Portia for this thoughtful and awesome gift.