My secret Vanilla Arbitrary Day Santa was far from Vanilla and didn't stay secret! Due to the size of her creations and her close proximity to my location we agreed shipping them was unnecessary and she delivered them today on her way through town.

Ilia731 is cute as a button, sweet as pie, and the perfect example of what redditgifts is all about!

I mentioned in my likes and dislikes that I just moved into a new apartment and didn't have things to decorate with. Through stalking she discovered that I love to travel and adventure. She created two pieces for me to hang in my new place that are both beautiful and interactive.

I was super stoked to get these and thought she had gone way over the top already what with the making me two things and then offering to deliver them but then I got home. You see, there was also this cute little gift bag with tissue paper that she said was just extra pins and stuff for the adventure board. I didn't dig through it then but went to empty it and put it away just now and found a BONUS GIFT!!!!

!!!!!!BONUS GIFT!!!!!

There were a handful of those delicious strawberry hard candy things and a super awesome book on palmistry- which is super amazing because (and I have no idea how she figured this out) I am fascinated by hands, happen to collect hand sculptures and haven't yet learned how to read palms as well as I do tarot.

Really, every experience I have with redditgifts just reinforces to me how awesome this world is. I am so moved every time a complete stranger goes out of their way to do something so kind. I have been a part of this community from the begining and although my belongings are humble, my home and my life are filled with things that have a meaning and a story and most of those stories start with, "So there's this thing online kind of like global secret santa....." and I don't ever get tired of telling them.

Ilia731 is spending this Independents Day without her husband because he is serving our country overseas. That is a gift none of us can say thank you enough for. But she really went above and beyond making this struggling single mom feel special and I hope she knows how much that means to me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.