A Surprise Visit From Secret Santa

A few weeks ago, while I was busy tending to my daily tasks, my husband appeared out of nowhere, grinning from ear to ear. After a few minutes of light banter, he revealed the reason for his visit. Behind his back was a large priority box. Since I did not hear the mailman come and was not expecting any packages, I was instantly intrigued by the mystery box in his hands.

“Oooh!”, I exclaimed excitedly!

What are you holding?
Where is it from?
Who sent it?
Is it for me?

You could hear the mischief in his voice as he slowly responded to each question:

I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
YES.

Like a child on Christmas morning, I began bouncing up and down, eagerly trying to wrestle the package from his hands. He laughed and teased and gleefully waved the box over my head until I finally caught it.

Immediately, I began to inspect the package, looking for clues as to who might have sent it and what might be inside. I soon discovered that the sender was a prankster – she had written my return address on the package, not hers! And then, I saw it – two magical words that increased my excitement tenfold:

OOOH! In my hands was the first gift of the Christmas season – on the twelfth day before Thanksgiving! How exciting was that?

To fully appreciate my excitement, you should be aware that for as long as I can remember, my family has conspired to hide my gifts and keep them out of both house and hands until the last possible moment! For reasons I cannot understand, they do not believe I will wait to open gifts until what they define as “the proper time”.  As you will see, however, their lack of faith is highly misplaced. I don’t rip into packages immediately, as they claim – I always wait until just the right moment. I believe that each gift deserves its own special opening ritual, and it’s up to the recipient to provide it.

This package came with a mystery that was begging to be solved. Before I would open my gift, I was deterimined to uncover the identity of my Secret Santa – which would be particularly challenging since I was participating in several Secret Santa swaps this year!

First, I tried to trace the delivery confirmation number, but to no avail. The post office did not show any information on my package at all!

Next, my husband intervened. He took a magnifying glass and identified the postmark on the package. I searched to see who might live in or near the location the package originated from. Attempt 1 – nothing. Attempt 2 – nothing. Attempt 3 – ding, ding ding – a match! I was so excited – at that point, I was pretty sure I had identified my Secret Santa!

Armed with this new information, I decided to test my will power one last time. I placed the box behind me and proceeded to go about my business, as if the package did not exist. An hour or so later – give or take 30, 40, maybe 50 minutes tops – I was satisfied that I had proven my point. Obviously I was disciplined enough to wait until Christmas to open my gift. Had I not proven my ability to overcome temptation time after time?

Now that I had shown I could refrain from opening my gift, I began to think – why should I? Why wait? The longer I thought about it, the better I thought it would be to open my gift now, rather than to insult Secret Santa by setting it aside. After all, I would want my recipients to open their gifts immediately, wouldn’t I?  I certaintly wouldn’t want to torment them for 39 days! So, I reached the only logical conclusion possible. The time had come to peek inside the box!

With that in mind, I tore the priority box tab back a bit – just enough to peek inside. I saw blue wrapping paper. Now, knowing I could freely open the box without revealing its contents, I eagerly ripped open the box and pulled out this beautifully wrapped snowman gift!

There are times when you have to shake a package up and down and listen inside to guess its contents. This was not one of those times! I knew immediately when I pulled the gift out of the box – by the familiar shape, size, and feel of the package – that there could only be one thing inside.

Secret Santa had brought the Princess paper! I could hardly contain myself. The only question was – which product line did Secret Santa choose to delight the Paper Princess with this year?

It did not take long to find out. I took a quick photo, bid farewell to Frosty, and ripped off the wrap.  Behold!  In my hands was a beautiful pad of Christmas paper from Martha Stewart!

This was my first introduction to Martha’s paper line and it’s gorgeous! Secret Santa sent me Martha’s 12 x 12 Cardinal Holly Multimedia Pad, which contains 30 cardstock weight papers, including 6 glittered designs, 6 varnished designs, 3 foil stamped designs, and papers with 39 die cuts and 113 stickers. The double-sided patterns are beautiful, but my favorites are the glitter sheets – they are rich, thick, heavily glittered papers that do not flake! I cannot wait to make cards with these papers (although several designs are perfect for scrapping!)

Thank you, Secret Santa Joyce, for my wonderful surprise! My gift is just fabulous!