Yesterday I fulfilled one of my great lifelong dreams: I bought a coffeehouse.

It is now sitting on my shelf.

True, this is probably the least masculine thing I've ever done, but I have harbored a secret love for those little Dickens Village holiday buildings for years. I know they're tacky and ridiculous, but when they're done right they're absolutely beautiful – and when Laura and I wandered into the Christmas Dove, a little holiday shop down by Fanueil Hall, we stumbled onto a whole mess of the things. The shop had multiple series all set up there, from the quintessential Dickens Village to the Halloween Village, but there in the New England VIllage collection was the Green Dragon Coffee House. It was a 2006 exclusive, they only had a couple left, and despite it being way way way too expensive I had to buy one. I know it was a good purchase because every time I see the silly thing squatting up on my shelf beside my collection of pen mugs, I grin like an idiot. It's a little tacky, but it's also cute and charming and heartwarming. Also schmaltzy. I don't care.

And now I have one more thing to check off my life's to-do list. :-)