I tried to write a thank-you note yesterday but didn't find the right words to do so. I still have not found the right words, thus I guess I'm go the rambling route as usual. I'm just not very good with words.

I decided to participate in this exchange because I could do with a bit of proverbial Irish luck as I've had an awful lot of really bad luck (it's not stopped yet, with two rather bad bike accidents in just over 2 weeks). Anyway, my dear Santa sent me a lovely message telling me that my gift was on it's way and that an additional postcard should arrive a bit earlier.

It did, and this way I learned that my Santa is from Chicago! I don't know a lot about celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the US, but I do know it's a really, really big thing in Chicago. Wow! So I was really ecstatic to receive this lovely card.

I followed the second gift on the tracker and then things got a bit weird. Once it had cleared customs I could see the shipping label - which instead of my name only held the placeholder 'not applicable', and the flat number was 123 instead of 123B (for example). Local mail could not change it so I tried to get hold of the people in 123 without luck. Parcels from outside the EU get delivered to a local post office and a delivery note posted to the door. So once I saw that it had arrived I put a note into the letterbox of 123, jumped on my bike (with a swollen, bloody knee from the second bike accident) and raced to the post office. Which could not find the parcel at first as they are apparently sorted by name, and with no name on the slip... well, they thought I was kidding them. Then I had to show all sorts of proof that this parcel without name was indeed for me. In the end the post employee lifted the shipping label and found indeed my name and full address underneath. Phew! So it was local mail messing up by putting a new, incomplete address label onto the parcel. USPS, you did nothing wrong!

Long story short: I got it :) And it was so worth working hard for it. My dear Santa has absolutely left me speechless and humbled by her generosity. Next to the postcard there's a lovely Chicago St. Patrick's Day Tshirt in the box (wow, I'm wearing it now!), a big can of Bailey's Irish Coffee chocolates (yum! yum! Trying hard to not eat all at once at the moment), a box with absolutely fantastic-looking tea, and then two very personal things: Handmade Irish recipe posters! All tested and trialled. I will hang them on the wall in my kitchen and try them one by one! And finally a book written by my Santa herself! It's a murder mystery set in a highschool, with a theme of (un)perfection attached. I love murder mysteries, am a bit of a perfectionist, and just left a job at a university, thus that's perfect. And: I've never read an American murder mystery before, thus this is even better. I started reading the book last night and really, really love it. People, get Death by Perfection by Katherine Haennicke! It's worth it!

There are so many interesting and completely new things for me in this unbelievably wonderful and very personal present from a very generous Santa. Thanks a lot dear Santa. I'm still speechless and can't stop smiling :)