The box was... large. And it was bulging at the seams -- in fact, one of the edges had burst completely. So when I saw it on my doorstep, I assumed there was some sort of mistake: this had to be, like, an Ikea kit for a chair or something. No way I'd ordered that. Huh.

But it was addressed to me -- and does Ikea ship from Quebec? And it's light, and bouncy, and yep, that's my name? Hrm.

So I opened it.

The top layer was detritus: cardboard and plastic pellets and twine and straw.

But once I started digging around, I found that my Santa had spoiled me. Three games: Bang!, a party game I've been meaning to buy for ages; Game of Thrones, one of them thar complex 4X strategy games I've been hearing so much about; and the best of the bunch, Lords of Waterdeep, which I keep hearing the most incredible things about, but have never had an opportunity to play.

We'll be cracking them open tomorrow at my Labour Day BBQ -- thank you very much, Santa! You really went above and beyond here, and I appreciate the effort you put into picking appropriate titles: this really is exactly what I hoped to get out of this exchange -- although I didn't expect you'd spend so MUCH! (Yikes!)