My exchange began with my Santa publicly announcing that we are official Pokemon Rivals. After a little back-and-forth banter during which it became apparent that he is the protagonist Ash and I am the Gary Oak of the situation, he let me know that my gift would be coming directly from Japan!

I know there are a lot of serious and solid Pokemon trainers out there but ever since 1998 all I wanted as a little girl was my very own Salad. I would love Salad and care for him as a pet and never make him battle unless he wanted to. Salad would help me clean the high places that I couldn’t reach in my apartment with his vine whips and I would reward him with his favorite snack, croutons.

When my mystery package arrived I was not expecting it to be, MY VERY OWN LIFESIZED SALAD.

So I must admit defeat; my Pokemon rival has officially won this Redditgifts Pokemon exchange, because I love my Salad so much! I declare Anino the formal winner!