I’m in absolute awe, astonishment, wonder and an assortment of other words at my Secret Santa’s thoughtfulness and generosity.

I’ve made a lot of progress this year to recover, lose weight, be more active, and generally be better. Hiking has been a major part of that. I mentioned this in my profile, along with my usual interests. My Santa, who is also a big fan of hiking and being outside, put together a spectacular collection of awesomeness.

The gifts include:

Richard Powers’ The Overstory! I’ve been looking forward to reading this novel, which won a Pulitzer. And I believe trees and people’s relationship with them is a feature.

Amy Riolo’s The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook! I’ve been having a lot of success on the Mediterranean Diet but had not seen this cookbook yet. Already I see some fantastic ideas.

A daypack! This is extremely cool and will come in very handy. I didn’t yet have one.

A water bottle! It’s much better than my current one and can hold enough water for truly epic hikes.

Three S-Biner clips! To better carry all this coolness.

She also filled the daypack with her favorite hiking snacks!

Buc-ee’s Cran Slam Trail and Texas Trail. She wrote that Bucee’s is a Texas landmark and treasure. I’m resisting sampling them at the moment and saving them for a hike. Which I’ll go on as soon as I can, as these look really good.

Almonds. My favorite, and a lot of them!

Sport Beans. Something I didn’t know existed until now. Groovy!

Two Clif Bars and two Clif Bloks energy chews. I’m picturing myself atop majestic peaks triumphantly enjoying these. It’s tough to find majestic peaks in Ohio but now I have the motivation.

And a very thoughtful letter! In it she says I’m her first Secret Santa giftee. Can you believe it?

Santa K., you definitely put a smile on my face. The package also arrived while I was dealing with some rather difficult things, and it is helping a tremendous amount. It will also help me keep going. Again thank you, and I hope your Holidays and New Year are splendiferously groovy.