Receiving – Almost As Good As Giving!

I don’t mean that title in a corny or sarcastic way. I mean it quite sincerely. Receiving makes you feel loved. Giving makes you feel worth loving.

There is a way cool trend this holiday season at K-Mart stores all over. Strangers are paying off layaways! I think that is so cool! The USA story in links starts with a man with his three kids looking to pay a little on a layaway that he won’t be able to pay off and take home before Christmas. The assistant manager told him he couldn’t pay anything because she was paying it. The man was in tears when he realized she wasn’t joking. Anonymous donors are paying off layaways at K-Mart stores all over the country. How awesome!


I loved preparing my gift for the Secret Santa Soiree and the fun in sending it. I love sending gifts to friends I won’t see in person and I love baking my dozens of cookies for gifts and parties. Those are the things that make me feel truly happy. This past week has been the other side of that. This week, I’ve been the receiver!


Last night when David came in, he brought a box that was on the steps. It was from my Secret Santa!


Inside the box, there was another box, a beautiful box with a ribbon and a sparkly snowflake!


And inside that box was a box from Avon!


There was eau de partum spray, shower gel and lotion, a very nice set! I recall that I mentioned that nobody ever gives me things like that, so it was a very nice treat. I’m not familiar with the fragrance and burning the candle at both ends at this time of year gets me a little run down. My sense of smell, stuffed up, is the first thing to go, so it’ll be a few days before I get to truly appreciate that!



This was the real Secret Santa gift. At the end of last week, the day we left for Connecticut, I thought my Secret Santa Soirée gift had come in. There was a box, with my own address as the return address. Pretty sneaky! It also was addressed to Nani. I use my full name, so it matches the credit card, on orders that I buy for other people. If it’s addressed to Nani, it’s a gift for me rather than from me!

Inside the box was two packages in blue Santa paper I photoed everything so I could post it on my blog.


There wasn’t a card or any indication whom it was from. I opened the first box. Caribou K-Cups! I had just commented to David that very morning that we were almost out of unflavored coffee and I’d probably need to get some more at the store since I wasn’t planning on making an 11th Street Coffee order before the end of the year.

Box number two was more K-Cups! These ones were Green Mountain Nantucket Blend. The truth here is that I was going to buy Caribou to replenish our supply! Nantucket is a blend I tried and liked with the starter-pack that came with our brewer.


Still, cool a gift as it was, there was something not quite right. It just didn’t seem like a gift from a woman. Not that a woman wouldn’t give coffee as a gift, but if it was a gift of coffee from another woman, I’d think it might be one box of K-Cups with a mug or cookies. A man gives generous amounts of GOOD COFFEE and a woman gives a coffee experience.

So, I checked the return address again. When I first noted it, I commented, “Wow, small world! I have a cousin from that town!” Hmm… that cousin also happens to be a male cousin! So I hopped onto the email before publishing that my Secret Santa gift was here, likely confusing the real SS. He tried to deny it, but that darned honesty thing is a family trait.

So, I had 2 Secret Santas, one was my cousin who gave me serious coffee in blends I really like and the other, who is still unknown, who gave Avon, definitely a woman-given gift! I don’t have a lot of clues, but maybe I‘ll get some time to do some sleuthing.

Thank you so much to both of my awesome Secret Santas!

Links

K-Mart Secret Santas


See more Secret Santa reveals at Colorado Lady
Secret Santa Soirée *** means the reveal is posted