This is my third time at the redditgifts Secret Santa rodeo, and I've always been lucky enough to have great Santas and giftees. This year was no different. My giftee wrote a lovely post about her gifts, and my Santa shipped right on the deadline and was kind enough to provide a USPS tracking number. I was so excited when I saw that my package was scheduled to arrive on Christmas Eve.

I was on my way home from work on Christmas Eve when I spotted the mail carrier outside my house. I accosted her and begged for my package, but to my surprise she said she didn't have anything for me. Confused, I went inside to check my tracking again, only to find that Something Had Happened. The package was marked Insufficient Address!

I managed to get in touch with Santa, and we figured out that she might have left off a critical part of my address. Worse yet, she did not provide a full return address. Santa seemed alarmed, but I was not deterred. I work deep within the heart of a massive bureaucracy, so I knew that if anyone had the skills to track this package down, it was me. It was time to get on the phone.

First, I spoke to Annette at my local post office in Sacramento, who spent about a half hour hunting for the package. She couldn't find it and thought it might have gone to a sorting facility in Santa Ana. Jane Doe in Santa Ana (forgive me, Jane, but I do not remember your name!) disagreed, and gave me a detailed description of the likely path of my package. Apparently a misaddressed package will bounce from its final destination (as far as it gets with whatever information it contains) back to a local sorting facility, and from there back to the sorting facility of origin - but only with a return address. Without one, the package is headed to Dead Letter in Atlanta, Georgia.

My poor package! I pictured it tossed upon a giant heap of sad Snoo-adorned parcels in the middle of an abandoned warehouse in the Deep South. Maybe there isn't even a warehouse. Maybe Dead Letterville is a giant incinerator. I couldn't let that happen.

I tracked down Cynthia at the local sorting facility in West Sacramento. Cynthia was really on the ball. She took down my information and promised me a phone call or an email as soon as she located my package. When I hung up the phone, I felt certain that if it ended up in West Sac, Cynthia would find it.

All this leads up to today, when I checked my tracking info and saw that it had been updated at my local post office to "Exception," which is not terribly specific but an alarming shade of red. In no time, I had Annette back on the line and informed her that I was certain she could be no more than 100 feet away from my package. After about 10 minutes on hold, she was back on the line. "I found it! It's here!" I think Annette was almost as excited as I was. I even got a call from Cynthia about an hour later, as promised, confirming that my package was waiting for me. Annette personally brought me the box when I rushed through the post office door 10 minutes before closing.

After all that, I suppose you want to know what was inside. First, you should know that the box began to squeak on the seat next to me as I was driving home from the post office. After several heart attacks and a brief nightmare vision of emaciated mice, I surmised that Santa sent a present for the kitty of the house.

I am pleased to inform you that indeed, Santa thoughtfully included a squeaking toy bird for my cat. I thought she was going to have to fight my toddler for it, but Santa also included a present for him - a Lego boat. He was a little young to build it but demanded that I put it together for him and spent the rest of the night playing with it. He got his first Duplos for Christmas two days ago, so he's calling his present "the new Legos."

Now, on to my gift. I worked hard for my present, and I was not disappointed! Santa is apparently a ceramic artist, and sent me a lovely piece of pottery art! I doubt she knows this but I collect interesting hand-crafted ceramic pieces, usually from flea markets and thrift stores. This piece fits right in with my collection. When I first saw it, I wanted to bring it to work for my desk, but it looks so good with the other pieces on the mantle that I just might have to keep it there.

Thank you so much, aymgon! Your gift was perfect.