This year, after three years spent on Reddit, I decided to sign up for the coveted "Reddit Secret Santa." I was kind of in the mindset that only a few people got awesome gifts and a ton of people don't get gifts at all. Looking back I was really pessimistic about the whole process. Still, as soon as the matching was done I think I checked my email every five minutes waiting to see that my Santa had pulled my info. After several days I never got an email and my pessimism over the whole Secret Santa experience just grew to an even greater level (My giftee hasn't even bother to return my email yet so that didn't help). That is.. Until my Santa emailed me and I received an email that my gift had been shipped!

My Santa's message to me was extremely thoughtful and managed to flip my entire mindset of the whole experience. What was once doubt, turned into optimism and excitement. I still understand that many people don't have Santa's at all and have to be rematched, but somehow I got really lucky with one awesome santa. Whoever my gifter is (still refuses to share with me his reddit name D: ) I want to take a minute to thank you so much!

Onto the gift; In my information page I feel like I word vomited out almost all of my interests and thinking back I see that doing that confused my Santa more than anything. But above everything I talked about in my likes/dislikes, I talked about travel the most and my goals to experience the world as I age. Oh boy did Santa deliver. I received not one, but two books on Travel. One being a survival guide (SO COOL!) and the other being an informational book on National Parks in the United States (Perfect! The exact information I needed to plan where I wanted to go!) I plan on finishing these books tonight :) The next thing I saw from my Santa was a compass which is something I really needed and had been looking to get! It's almost as if you're a mindreader..

The last thing I got from my Santa is one of the best gifts I've received in a long time, it was a travelers notebook. I can't even begin to describe how much time I've spent thinking about buying one but had no idea which one to get. Seeing this in my package was jaw dropping. It might seem weird, but I couldn't think of a better notebook to write my experiences in than the one my Santa sent me. It's perfect.

All-in-all my Secret Santa experience with my Santa has been incredible. My entire view point on all of it changed dramatically and I can't wait to sign up for next year!