What an incredible first experience with the Reddit Secret Santa Exchange! It was absolutely clear that my santa took a lot of time to read not only the questionnaire I had filled out but my reddit post history as well. Everything included in my gift had a direct tie to something I've talked about on reddit. In my questionnaire I had basically said that I'm all about the strange and bizarre and didn't have anything in mind but wanted something that I would never buy myself. I didn't realize how awesomely my santa would come through.

To start, the box was huge and incredibly heavy. I had no idea what it could be when I picked it up. See requisite banana for scale picture. When I opened the box everything was beautifully wrapped and there was an envelope with a snu and my name on it. The letter was mysterious and made me even more excited to open my present! There was also a small present which said to open it second, so I began with the big one.

The main present was a custom etched glass award which read "Presented to (my actual name). Excellence in Igloo Building. 2016." See, every year I have a tradition of building a gigantic igloo. Usually they're big enough for 3-4 people to fit comfortably in them. I also built a bar out of snow in one one year. My santa clearly dug through my posts and found pictures of the igloos! Even the glass award was perfect; I'm an amateur glassblower and love the look of all things glass. Truly stellar work!

The smaller present was a few bottles of (non-alcoholic, totally legal to ship) bourbon! This is doubly perfect. I love bourbon (and have talked about it quite a bit on reddit), plus as mentioned my igloos often are constructed with a built-in bar. Clearly, these will be saved to stock the igloo bar this year.

I was laughing and grinning the entire time I opened my present and took the pictures, and I know I'll smile every time I look at that award for years and years to come.

Thank you, reddit secret santa! I cannot possibly imagine a better secret santa experience and I'm so glad I got you this year!