I was really lucky this year and found myself giftee to the most thoughtful SS that reddit ever produced, hands down, boom. She stalked me online and demanded some random facts and the result was a cavalcade of gifts for me that I'm honestly humbled by.

The first box came days before Christmas. Inside the packing box was a teeny hand decorated box with my initial on it (my SS clearly takes no prisoners when using a glue gun because everything was so amazing looking). In the box was a totally beautiful vintage pearl Masonic pocketknife. So cool. She knew I collected them. The box was filled with glittery things and jingle bells too, and there was a sweet note too saying that this was the only vintage gift and that 2 more packages were on the way! (This was a lie as you will see.. read on!)

A day or so later I got another package in the mail, this time from Amazon, and in it was The Oatmeal - The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances (a very cool book which made me laugh immediately). Santa knew I was a runner and the card congratulated me on completing 500 miles this year.

Then another package came, it was a jiffy pack that was literally stuffed with toys for my cat Pumpkin. There were treats (including some pungent dried shrimp haha, which he now loves) and some really cool mice and toys including the HEXBUG which is this tiny robot bug which scuttles across the floor in random directions and stuff. I'm not sure who likes it more, Pumpkin (cat) or me. Another totally thoughtful gift.

That made 3 packages but then another one came out of the blue a couple of days later. It was a big box packed to the brim with goodies. There were finger bowls and a space-like thing to keep my herbs fresh for my kitchen, there was holiday coffee (wearing a tiny hat and scarf mind you) and goat soap (sea salt and myrrh scent!) that were local faves of my Santa. There was a cool vintage cigar box within the box that was beautifully decorated and inside were a pair of Pair of Thieves socks and a very, very awesome Neil Young & Crazy Horse shirt that I love. Another really sweet note came with this box and all the gifts were wrapped so perfectly. The box was also littered with beer company swag, like stickers and coasters, because SS knew I love beer. Opening this box just made it feel like the holidays for me so I owe my SS a lot.

But wait--there's more. Just when the dust of awesomeness from the last gift settled, another one showed up! That makes 5 packages total. When I opened the package up I saw this beautiful sort of rustic looking gift box that had hand-stamped lettering on it. I knew right away that SS took the lyrics of a song I wrote and have on YouTube and decorated the box with them. This is some CRAZY high level wrapping game here. Inside the box were a set of handmade exotic wood guitar picks, they are like tiny works of folk art, so beautiful. There is also a handmade leather pick wallet, and Santa actually created a foam insert for the box so that everything would display perfectly. Handmade foam insert! What!?

Also included with the box was a thank you note to me for being my Santa's giftee because she said she had fun picking out all the stuff for me. So not only did my Santa kill it this year in every way, but she wrote me a thank you note on top of it all. I was really moved and that takes a lot these days.

I also think Santa got me some reddit gold on the sly...

Anyway thank you SO MUCH secret Santa for being so thoughtful and amazing and making my holiday special this year--which you totally did. I love all of my gifts so much and I will always remember this exchange.