SUPER LATE UPDATE: PART 2 TOTALLY MADE MY COSTUME!! So, I got the second part of my gift ages ago but never got a chance to take a full costume pic until Halloween. And everything's been so busy since that I dropped the ball on posting until now. BUT HERE'S THE STORY.

So, the faculty Halloween theme this year was "book characters," so I finally got to wear my ridiculous light-up squid hat and say I was Cthulhu. The plan was squid hat and Tinkerbell wings (borrowed from family friend with small daughters). The cute version of one of the least cute characters in literature. So I mentioned in my exchange notes that if Santa thought of anything to add to the costume, that could be cool. I didn't really know what could be added, but THEY ACTUALLY DID!!

Santa got me a T-shirt with a ridiculous picture of a 90's-cool Cthulhu with the caption "Too Cthul for School." It's INCREDIBLE.

My Dad commented on how thrilled I clearly was when I opened this present. I was grinning ear to ear! It's so perfect for my cute Cthulhu theme!

So the way I ended up doing my costume was that I wore a long black coat over the whole thing, covering the T-shirt, and then had students try to guess who I was. (For reference, I teach high school math.) Then, once they'd had a chance to guess, I revealed the T-shirt and the answer. Got some great laughs. At least some of the kids knew who Cthulhu was. One of them actually guessed correctly! During class, I showed a picture of actual Cthulhu for comparison. The students agreed it was exactly the same.

Overheard a very young student at assembly who thought I was Octodad, which I guess... close enough?

Anyway, the costume ruled, thanks to Santa!!

Original post: Shipment part 1: CANDY!!!!! We had a bit of a hiccup where the exact day the first part arrived was the one and only day my house was inaccessible by car due to repaving. But no problem! They tried again the next day and were successful. But Santa must have been nervous, because it turns out the present was CANDY! 18 full-sized chocolate bars, 6 Hershey's, 6 Reese's, and 6 KitKats. All the best ones, miraculously unmelted despite the fact that I live in a desert and it was around 3-digit temperatures the day it was supposed to be delivered. It's a Halloween miracle! So part 1 was a win, and I can't wait for part 2!