My wife convinced me to do Secret Santa this year, and I'm glad I did!

A little orangered message slip:

Merry Summer Solstice I hope these gifts please you - Aciesethos

...and inside, thoughtful and well-researched gifts! (We say well-researched because it is more reassuring than "oh god, the walls have eyes")

There were some amusing 'autographed' photos of David Oldfield (referencing my /r/Australia flair), Pauline Hanson (referencing events from 1998, oh god the stalking) and Stephen Conroy (referencing net censorship and some instructions I published to redact stupid comments from news websites).

There was a little figure of Master Chief, who shall stand vigil above my online campaigns, and a double-handful of lollies. Hey, I'm a carbohydrate-based lifeform.

And last, but certainly not least, Andrew Chaikin's thumping great tome 'Space' (ISBN 978-1-84732-077-3), a coffee table -sized collection of words and gorgeous pictures from half a century of human spaceflight. This almost makes up for the time a fuel-line heater broke on STS-134 this year and I didn't get to see the Space Shuttle launch.

Thank you Aciesethos, thoughtful and kind total stranger! I appreciate the trouble you went to to put a smile on my face :)

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great 2012 (international year of the Mayan apocalypse)