I received my Hats & Scarves gifts yesterday and my Santa blew me away!! As I stated in my title, I was shafted in two of my most recent exchanges. The sad part is, they just happened to be the two exchanges I was most excited about since discovering RedditGifts last Christmas, considering my passions in life. I live 1/2 mile from the beach and love to go there several times a week. I also run my own animal rescue organization, and am very dedicated and passionate about animals and animal rights. Therefore, when the Life's a Beach and Presents for Pets exchanges came up I was most excited for them!! Those just happened to be the two exchanges that my Santa's didn't come through for me. Anyway, as my Mom use to always say, that's the way the ball bounces. Lol



Immediately after my Santa pulled my information she sent me a message asking me about sizing. And low and behold, just a few days later I received a package in the mail! Now that is the fastest anyone has ever shipped my gift; so that was already a great start to this round of exchanges!! I didn't make it easy on my Santa, but she came through for me with flying colors. I live in central Florida (on the east coast) so it doesn't really get cold enough here for hats and scarves. So, one may wonder why I'd sign up for the hats and scarves exchange. Well, I live 1/2 mile from the beach in one direction, and 1/2 mile from a couple different rivers in the other direction. One of my greatest pastimes is to go fishing. (FYI, I practice catch and release.) During the winter my hands get really cold with the air temperature, the wind, and my hands getting wet from touching the fish and bait, and the water. And even though I don't like to ask for specific gifts, I did ask for waterproof fishing gloves this time. I actually felt kind of bad for asking for a specific gift; but I figured it was better than someone buying me something that I'd never use.



Anyway, so when my package arrived I was soooo excited!! The first thing I saw when I opened the box was a pair of gloves!! And you guessed it, they're waterproof fishing gloves!! And not just any pair of waterproof fishing gloves, they're the BEST...they're Glacier Glove Ice Bay fishing gloves, which are 100% waterproof!! Yep, my Santa nailed it! The entire glove is covered in sharkskin textured premium G-Tek neoprene and they're fleece lined. They are going to have some serious grip and warmth!! They are super lightweight and they fit nice and snug, which means I should have no problem with a lack of flexibility as with most gloves. I honestly can not wait to try them out!! I was all smiles, from ear to ear when I took them out of the box!!



After I thoroughly checked out my newest gear I was looking through the box to see if my Santa gave me their username on my gift receipt. And you'll never guess what!?!? The first piece of paper that I saw from Amazon was one that read, "I thought I'd toss in an extra ;)". What?!?! There's more?!?!? No way!! You're kidding!! Then I saw it. A familiar little box. As I stated earlier, I love to go to the beach. One of the MANY reasons that I love to go to the beach is to look for giant sea turtles. The beach right by my house has a very high population of Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtles. So, for a select 5-6 months out of the year I go walking the beaches at night in search of these majestic creatures. And I typically see at least one every time I go. Trust me, if you've never seen one in person (in the wild) it should be on everyone's bucket list. There's just something about witnessing their magnificent feat. The struggle that they endure just to walk their several hundred pound body out of the ocean, up the sloped beach, dig their nest, and lay their eggs, only to then walk all the way back down to the ocean is a true miracle. This whole process takes a couple of hours. These huge turtles are made to swim effortlessly in the water, not to walk on land, which expels a lot of their energy. And do you know what's mind blowing to me? The fact that these Momma's struggle out of their natural environment (the sea) to climb up on the beach and lay their eggs was predetermined from where their own Momma laid the eggs that they came from!! How, you ask? Because where they lay their eggs is on the same beach where they themselves were born...approx. 25 years earlier...and year after year after year they continue to come to the same beach!!! If you're not amazed by that then you need to check your pulse. Lol

Ok, I guess you can tell by now that I'm fascinated by these prehistoric reptiles. I could talk about them for hours!! But now back to my second gift. As much as I love looking for sea turtles, sometimes it's really dark on the beach at night, and if the turtles are close to the dunes it can be really hard to locate them. Thus, where my second gift comes in extremely handy. It's against the law (and just wrong) to use a flashlight, or any other kind of white lighting (including street lights and house / condo outside lighting) during turtle season. As the turtles use the light from the moon to direct them back to the ocean, it becomes confusing to them when they see white light from any other source other than the moon. So, if they see any other light it will most likely result in what's called a false crawl. Basically that means that they expelled all of that energy to walk up on the beach to lay their eggs only to be spooked, to turn right back around and go back into the ocean...without laying their eggs. However, blue (and red) lights don't affect them. Blue lights show up much better than red lights, so that's what I prefer. Therefore, it is imperative that I have a blue flashlight when searching for these beautiful creatures. I have one already (thanks to my Great Outdoors Santa), but I can never have enough of them as I like to leave them in my vehicles so I have access to them no matter what car I'm in when the mood strikes to stop at the beach...which happens frequently! Therefore, when I saw that little box, with what I could tell was a flashlight, I was ecstatic!! I have purchased a few blue lights and they just don't emit enough light to do any good. But this blue flashlight is THE BEST one that I own!! And now I own two of them, woo hoo!! Oh, and I almost forgot, this flashlight is also waterproof, has a nightlight on it, and it takes 3 AAA batteries instead of any of the more expensive batteries. Of course, the batteries in this flashlight last an extremely long time!! As a matter of fact, as many times as I've used the one from my Great Outdoors Santa, I still haven't had to replace those batteries.



I seriously can't thank Dallas enough for two very thoughtful gifts!! You not only made my day, but my entire week! Every time I use my new gloves and my new flashlight (for years to come, I'm sure) I'll be thinking about the you (the kind and wonderful Redditor) who gifted them to me.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! You're the best!!