I am taken aback by the thought and care my Secret Santa put into this exchange. His gifts go far beyond what I would expect, and am genuinely touched by his thoughtfulness.

When I opened the shipping box, I was excited to see a few different packages.

First, was a great card (I absolutely love greeting cards) with a very nice note. I knew at this point that he really put some time into this. What he could not have known when picking each item was the special meaning each would have in my life right now.

The first item I opened up was my favorite guilty pleasure... chocolate. As most people who have gotten sober will tell you, once you stop drinking you get an incredible sweet tooth; I am no exception to this phenomenon, just ask my waistline. He hit the nail on the head with sea salt dark chocolate as it is my favorite!

Next, was a thumb drive. My wife and I absolutely love watching terrible movies (right now we are on a Hallmark Channel holiday movie binge that is causing our DVR to question sanity) and my Santa gave me a thumb drive filled with bad (and some really good) movies. He also wrote brief synopsis of each movie or show on the thumb drive. We are so excited to spend our time away from our offices curled up on the couch watching as many of these as we can handle. Between my wife and I, there are only two movies that either of us have watched before so we have our work cut out for us. We decided to not spend time with my family this Christmas due to some tensions following our wedding, so this couldn't have been better timing to dive into some uncharted (for us) territory.

Next was a book that I had to sit and page through for 30 minutes before moving on and making this post. When I got sober, I picked up woodworking to fill my time and work with my hands. Japanese woodworking (especially their joinery) is on such a different level than what I do, and it is something I have always aspired to learn. The joinery used in Japanese woodworking is art on every level and I am so excited to learn.

This book has everything in it I will need to get started, and is absolutely perfect... but this gift is actually much better than my Santa could have known. My current wood shop is mainly power tools with few hand tools. My wife and I are looking to move into a condo in the downtown area near where we live and I won't have a garage for my shop so I will use one of the spare bedrooms for my shop. Because of the space restriction and noise of power tools, I won't be able to have my power tools on site, thus I am in the process of switching to primarily using hand tools. This book will make the conversion so much better and will really challenge me as I learn these new skills.

Finally, my Santa told me in the card that he used the extra time before shipping my gift to draw what he "thinks looks like a walleye." Knowing that I have ZERO artistic ability, I was expecting a drawing like I would create. I was very wrong. Santa, you did a great job. My Santa had already put in a lot of time and effort picking out my other gifts, that for him to go above and beyond and take the time to create and draw this picture really touched me. I bought a few extra frames this Christmas season that I ended up not using, but will now use to put this drawing up in my office. I am very proud to have this and am grateful that I will be able to have this as a reminder of this year's Secret Santa exchange.

This year's Secret Santa exchange was wonderful. Santa, you are a very thoughtful and caring person who made this Christmas and year very special for me. I am truly thankful for not only your gifts, but also for the thought and care you put in.

Thank you again for making this such a special exchange, you will never know how much each gift truly affected me this holiday season. I wish you the best in all you do, and I hope someone is able to make you feel as appreciated and special as you made me feel.