From the moment I first peeked inside and saw bears and foxes ice skating across several gifts, each one tied together by shiny red ribbons surrounded by snowflake stickers decorating the inside of the box, I was filled with excitement and couldn’t wait to find out what was in each one of the gifts. And, each gift was like its own fun little adventure too!

The first gift I opened turned out to be a teal (or maybe it's sea foam green colored) vinyl decal of a ferret that my Santa created for me. It had several notes that went along with it telling me things like, "Open me, I'm just a very flat gift." I enjoyed the note and angry face that went with the instructions (accidentally printed over some engine blueprints) on how to apply the decal too. It had me laughing and doing a double take. And I think I might be the only owner of a teal/ sea foam colored ferret, so that's very cool!

Next, I unwrapped a gift to find it perfectly wrapped a second time underneath. I thought I might have been going crazy the first time it happened. BUT, there were at least TWO gifts that were double wrapped. So, I'm not sure if my Secret Santa somehow discovered that one of my favorite things about Christmas is unwrapping things (doesn't even matter what's in it, I just really like to unwrap things) or she was playing a prank on me. Or, who knows … Santa, why were some of the gifts wrapped twice?

Anyway, I got a beautiful, iridescent, emerald green beetle necklace that glows in the dark. The beetle reminds me of a Japanese beetle only much, much bigger. I also got two Christmas ornaments; a peach and a pickle. Thank you, Santa, for including the Christmas Pickle tradition in your letter. I thought it was really cool. The next gift revealed a super cute zombie virus. I love it so, so very much! I think all three of my ferrets are liking it too, so it might be a fight over who gets to play with it.

Then, I opened the gift that one of my ferrets had accidently knocked over onto the floor. The outside of shipping box had the words "fragile" written across it, so I had been praying and hoping that she didn't break whatever it was inside. It had hit the floor with an audible thud that made my heart sink. And removing the wrapping paper revealed… bubble wrap. Oh, no! My heart sank even further into my stomach. Fera, what have you done?! I held my breath and carefully removed the bubble wrap. It turned out to be a cast iron skillet (I wiped my forehead as nothing was broken and that explained the thud) with chocolate chip cookie mix, which is probably what made her go for that gift in particular. She can smell sweets hidden in anything anywhere.

Then, the very last gift that I opened was a Pet Sweep box. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to attach it to the ferrets. But, sure, I'm all for them helping me dust the house! So, as I was thinking of a way to make it work, my husband suggested opening the box to actually look at it. Surprise, surprise! Inside the box revealed a Sriracha apron that my Santa made for me. It's my very first apron, which is crazy, because I am such a mess whenever I help out in the kitchen. So, even though I'm sure I could have figured out a way to get the Pet Sweep to work, this Sriracha apron is a much better surprise!

Overall, I am so grateful to be one of the lucky ones to get such a creatively thoughtful Santa this year. It felt like my Secret Santa really got to know me as she was picking out such fun things to send me. Thank you so very much, Santa! It was so much fun opening all the gifts, discovering all the little notes and reading behind-the-scenes stories about everything in the card.