One box arrived three days ago, but my Secret Santa had anonymously let me know that one more would be coming, so I waited until both were here before opening.

I opened the ThinkGeek box first. Inside, I found two, programming-themed beer glasses. Clearly, my Secret Santa had done his homework! It is, of course, necessary to ensure that the glasses are fully functional. Fortunately, I happened to have on hand a bottle of Knee Deep Brewing Simtra Triple India Pale Ale. I have put these glasses through an exhaustive functional test and can confirm that they work as designed.

Next, I opened the Amazon box. inside, I found two wrapped packages, with a nice note. It read: "in joining this year's RedditGifts, I decided to ship from your wish list. It was quite hard to bring myself to send someone books for Christmas, even more so MATH BOOKS! All kidding aside, I wish you and your family the greatest holidays, filled with tons of happiness and prosperity! Enjoy, Mike (mvescio)"

Here, I should point out that I get the same reaction from members of my immediate family. "Your wish list is all math books!" You mean yours isn't?

I unwrapped two books: "Basic Abstract Algebra: For Graduate Students and Advanced Undergraduates," and "In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation." I'm going to start reading the former as soon as I submit this post.

I may be a geek, that I'm a very happy geek tonight! Thank you so much, Mike! Merci beaucoup à mon Père Noël anonyme! Bonnes fêtes!