Wow, my Secret Santa must have done their homework because I have no idea how they so succinctly nailed my gift. I mentioned that I like surprises, and this was a HUGE surprise.

I received a wonderful note which wove a tale weaving together how my gifts were related. I really appreciate the thought put into my gift, I love every element of it!

So onto the loot! My SS sent me two fascinating books which I can't wait to dive into.

1) Nudge - Improving decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness A book about choices, how they are made and how we're lead to make better ones. Behavioral economics is such a fascinating field. If this is anything like Dan Ariely's work, I know I'll love it!

2) The Box - How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger Believe it or not, I had heard about this book before. Someone had mentioned it and I was intrigued. Thank you so much for picking two books I know I will enjoy, and better yet two books I doubt I would have gotten for myself.

Included in the box was a handmade beanie cap. From the letter my SS said this was a first attempt. I can only say for the benefit of your friends and family that I hope you continue, you did a fantastic job!

Then my SS pulled off some sort of magical Reddit Secret Santa ninjutsu. About 3-4 months ago I started to look into reclaiming a manly heritage that modern marketing departments and conglomerate corporations have almost reduced to a lost art. I'm of course talking about the art of the wet shave. No, this has nothing to do with some razor with a septet of blades equipped with lights and motors. I'm talking about a man, a blade, a brush, and some hand whipped lather.

This is where it gets crazy because I had started to looking into what I would need to get but, other things popped up and I shelved the idea for later. I never made any mention of this to anyone but my wife. So when I pulled out the badger hair brush, my jaw dropped. Badger hair brushes are the very best shaving brushes out there, and are not cheap. In addition to the brush, I was sent Crabtree & Evelyn shaving soap, which is also considered some of the best available. As a diligent SS, they were also worried about my wellbeing, so they included bacon band-aids in case I happen to cut myself shaving. Could this be a form of foreshadowing the knowledge I may glean from my new book Nudge? Remind me of potential dangers in shaving so I'll take more care, we shall see.

I am truly blown away, not only did my SS put a ton of thought into a wonderful gift, they took care to pick out some very high quality gifts. So thank you so much Spencer (only hint I have on your identity), I'm thrilled with my gifts! Kudos to you for your stalking and gift giving abilities.

ps - My gift photos are was what first popped into my head when I pulled out the brush (1st item I found in the packing peanuts). Thus I wanted to incorporate them into my pics. If they have re-infected you with that particular earworm of a meme, think of it as my final counter stroke of spreading additional SS joy this year.