Happy Shopping

Saturday was a holiday shopping day for me. I like internet shopping because there aren't the crowds I didn't enjoy shopping in before the wheelchair. But honestly, I do miss the decorated malls and the peppermint lattes!

I would have been exhausted doing everything I did in person. I started surfing around noon. David was home so we shared talk, music and meals. There is no way he'd spend the whole day Christmas shopping with me and not be miserable. With me cyber shopping, he could play poker online and I could still show him things I saw in stores. I enjoyed the social part of shopping and he didn't have to step foot in the estrogen-filled stadium of "shop til you drop."

I'm doing Secret Santa with a women's group I'm in. My Santee is someone I've never met before. It's just like the Secret Santa Soirée was done only I don't have years of her blog to get to know the person I'm giving to. I just have her Facebook wall. We life-bloggers and craft bloggers share more details about our passions and preferences than is usually shared on Facebook. Still, between the Facebook Wall and her paragraph about who she is and the things she likes I was able to have several ideas that I could pursue to find just the right gift. I found it around 11 o'clock Saturday night. There was one other person that I was shopping for but I knew what I wanted to get, down to two possible pictures of it in my mind. I found one of the pictures I had in mind after a couple of hours but, as is a regular shopping thing, I found something else that I just loved. I hope it's opened with as big a smile as it gave me to find it. I'm behind on my page-a-day scrap goal for December already, but it was totally worth it to spend a day traveling all over internet stores and finding the right gifts for two different people!


When shopping the specialty stores to collect my traditional Italian goodies and other special things for the holidays, I like to find occasional edible presents and I also like to try something new myself. In years past I tried cranberry mustard, rum cake cookies and even chicken tortellini.

This year I tried a jar of creama di pistacchio, pistachio cream, from Supermarket Italy. At first glance, it's a jar of green goo. It's greener than I was expecting from the photograph online but since it was creamier, than Lake Erie water during an algae bloom, I decided I wasn't so grossed out that I couldn't give it a try.

O-M-G... I swiped my finger on the pistachio cream that was on the lid and the taste is amazing! If you like pistachios imagine peanut butter only with pistachios. The flavor is a little more pungent than peanut butter but that's because pistachios are a little more pungent than peanuts. Where I could take a spoon and just scoop peanut butter out and eat it, I really think I need crackers or biscuits for the pistachio butter. But, oh my, it is good!

I talked to my dad last night and told him about it. I also wanted help on the pronunciation of pistacchio, pistachio in Italian. Pop said, no kidding, that he didn't remember ever saying pistacchio when he was a kid and only remembers saying it in English. Since I'm not bilingual, I've never thought about there being things you'd learn about while speaking in the new language that you didn't know the word for in your original tongue. I was told that when I was learning to talk I had to learn the English word butterfly because I first saw butterflies often at the park with my grandmother. Noni called them "farfalle" and I didn't know that word was a different language than the one I was learning. Of course since I don't actually remember that one, I don't remember how it felt. I still think it would be more strange to an adult. I also think it's a bigger deal to me than Pop.

Oh, we decided because of the vowel sounds and double-c, it is pronounced
| pee-STAH-chee-o |

Nani Is A Bad Santee!

I drove Suzanne and my Santa crazy because I don’t know my own address, or anyway I didn’t type it right. When I turned my address in with my Secret Santa Soirée survey I added a number that’s not in my address and the post office was preparing to return it as undeliverable when there was no return address. I’m sure the delivery confirmation had the address but still what an awful Santee to mess up my own address! Of course, this makes my Santa even more awesome because she freaked out about it and Suzanne the best Secret Santa coordinator ever for catching and fixing my screw-up.

So we just got back from our annual trip to Connecticut for the holidays and I knew my secret Santa box had safely arrived after our combined efforts to correct it with my post office and I haven’t had a chance to post the photos and gush, and gush is totally what I’m doing, about my wonderful box from my Secret Santa. So here it is!

The first thing in the box was a sweet Christmas card with a cat laying on an old-school TV with the video fireplace. How perfect is that? I have the video fireplace that I watch on my computer and there are always cats around it.

Next I pulled out all of the packages.

Spoiled much, Nani?

First thing that I noticed as I unboxed the loot was a large bag of Almond M&Ms, my favorite M&Ms!

The first package that I opened had a note on the front, like several of the packages did, and this one said it was a true delight from my Santa’s home state. This would be my first clue on the road to trying to figure out who my Santa is.

It’s a cow pie! Made in the great state of Wisconsin. So that’s my first clue; my Santa is from Wisconsin, enjoys a little humor and great treats. After the initial “cow pie,” chocolate, caramel and pecans? How awesome; YUM!

There were so many wonderful treasures in my box. My Santee included chocolate mint coffee from Wisconsin and chocolate milk straws because she lives on a dairy farm. More clues, more clues…

Her daughter loves to crochet and made me a washcloth! I won’t use it to wash dishes because it’s pretty and handmade for me and, well, I thought it would make a great mug mat instead and be safer from accidents.

Add to the chocolate collection a few Ghirardelli solids, that whole bag of Almond M&Ms and a giant Hershey’s Symphony bar! Now I do have to decide if I need to eat all of it before January 1 or if I need to cut it into 6-point snack bags for the January Recommit. Maybe I’ll do a little of both but that Cow Pie is screaming for my attention!

I got a couple of sweet ornaments! Sweet and more chocolate in a red M&Ms ornament. I got a green and yellow last year so this will be perfect with them! I also got the cutest kitty with a scarf! I extra love them because they are unbreakable, this year our tree is all unbreakable ornaments for Marco’s first Christmas so when he climbs the tree we won’t hear crashing!

There was also a Marx Brothers DVD. I love classic movies and there are four movies on it and I’m sure I’ll find myself plopped in front of the TV with a mug of that Chocolate Mint coffee the next big snow day!

The best treasure in the box is a handmade quilted mug mat. When I opened it I just caught my breath; it’s GORGEOUS! The quilt pattern is beautiful and the holly stripes really caught my eye, but those cat triangles are just so perfectly me!

The coffee cup appliqué embroidered in the corner of BOTH sides is so sweet, and it’s green, my favorite color and the single fabric side is a fantastic winter snowflake print. Both sides are just beautiful. I love it!

To my sweet Secret Santa, bless you and thank you, thank you, thank you! You are so generous and made me feel very special! You are a fantastic Santa!

A Little Peace, Planning and Poppers

Lookie! All three cats on the bed, kinda touching even! There is still plenty of charging and hissing when it’s not nap time, but they are able to peacefully coexist when they are all tired. Still, when they aren’t sleeping they are doing a little better at ignoring each other, well the girls ignore Marco. Kaline still gives unwarranted growls when he walks by, but it keeps him walking by and Marco only attacks them when, really amped up for playing. It all takes time, Maybe they know Santa Paws is watching!

Today is Secret Santa mail day! The deadline is today and my package was all wrapped up Monday night, but I finished getting it ready to mail last night. I didn’t want to send it too soon, since it’s a SECRET Santa Soiree I want my package to blend in with the herd in the mail. Still I can’t wait until my Santee gets the package and I read about it on her blog.

It’s also time to get ready for Davinities! You know what that means! I sample cookies while I’m baking and crave salad like crazy! It’s so true! When I’m doing my Christmas baking I have to have bags of lettuce and lots of other salad fixins! It’s gonna be an interesting lesson in contrast in the grocery buggy tomorrow!

Salad with tuna and crunchy veggies last year (12/13/12) 

In getting ready for baking and for the January Detox I created a quick and delicious recipe yesterday. Bell Poppers are my healthy take on restaurant fried Jalapeño Poppers. I used mini bell peppers and stuffed them with shredded cheese and a few shakes of green tabasco sauce. The green is a milder sauce with less heat and lots of spicy flavor. After stuffing my peppers I lined then up facing each other to catch any cheese that spills out and microwaved them for 2-1/2 minutes.

Not bad for a first try. The flavor was great! Next time I’m going to try some Neufatchel with the shredded cheese and try mixing the cheese and sauce first, then stuffing the peppers. I’m also going to work on a way to keep them standing and microwave a little longer to cook the peppers more. I may try it in the toaster oven too. But for a first shot, the Bell Poppers are very good!

This was breakfast yesterday:

My great find Raisin Panettone with pumpkin spice coffee. That mug is one of my favorite holiday mugs. It’s three stages of the Eat ‘n’ Park star and tree from their holiday commercial. I’m on their mailing list, so they send it every year and every year it makes me cry a title more because it’s so beautiful. Remember that it sometimes takes a few tries for me to stand up and I rely on those wonderful people who love and support me in so many ways. I posted the spot on my Facebook page and I’m posting it here too with the same message. ”To all my famil; relatives and dear friends, at home and in cyberspace: I am the little star and you all are my tree!



Can you see why it makes a mush like me cry?

Well, I’m off to finish up my shopping list and maybe even do a scrapbook page, maybe; I’m a little behind on that 2013 goal so far this month!

Other Santas in the Soiree: today is the day and part 2 of the fun begins!  Make sure you get your delivery confirmation numbers to Suzanne by the end of the day so she can enjoy her Santa without extra stress!

I Found The Good Stuff!

That was my breakfast this morning I finally found my Panettone solo uvetta, senza canditi; only raisins or no candied fruit. That’s not the common and traditional way to make panettone but I don’t like the candied fruit and and never have. Mom didn’t like it either but loved the panettone senza canditi and every year Noni found a panettone senza canditi for her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter for Christmas. Now I make a point of finding only raisin panettone for Christmas in remembrance of my grandmother and my mother and because it just tastes so great.

It usually takes searching before I find my panettone. Shopping online helps! So when I ordered my traditional Italian Torrone candy, I added a couple of the mini panettone like the one I had for breakfast in case I still couldn’t find full size. The candy shop didn’t have panettone solo uvetta in larger packages. But I did find 2.2 pound panettone senza canditi at a different store online and bought two. Now I’ll make sure keep my hands off one of them so I have it for Christmas breakfast.

That was breakfast this is now

Skipped a few hours there because the bus called and I went shopping! Yanno, it is SO cool to use the paratransit bus for something all by myself that’s NOT a doctor’s appointment! I did some Christmas shopping including finishing all of my Secret Santee shopping. Now I’m not going to say what stores I shopped at because my Santee might just read The Chronicles of Nani. Besides I bought a few other things that might also be for someone who reads my blog. You never know.

No one has ever asked me how long it takes me to shop. I never have been a huge shopper. In my teens and early 20s I could spend a day at the mall with my mom or with friends but I don’t think that really counts. I like to shop for Christmas things alone and I really do enjoy that. If I want an opinion I like the unbiased input from clerks and other shoppers. So today I had a mission, one place that I wanted to go and to make my trip reservation with the bus I had to be able to sell them how long I’d be. Hmmm… One store, one list with a few different names and a few different things and some choices I knew I’d have to make for those things. So I guessed two hours. It took me one at the store I planned to visit. Since I had an hour before the bus was scheduled to pick me up and the rain had let up I motored to some of the other stores in the center and did a little more Christmas shopping!

One of the stores was Family Dollar. David doesn’t do dollar stores or discount stores; what Grandma used to call “junk stores.” Don’t get me wrong there, Grandma loved going to “junk stores.” What wonderful places they are for craft notions and the little things we use every day that aren't meant to last. Frankly I’d rather pay two dollars for something that lasts a month than pay five dollars for something that last two months. Sometimes the natural female shopping gene just makes more sense than the male “I hate stores” gene. I don’t get to go to those stores so much anymore because when I get together with girlfriends it’s for catching up over lunch, dinner or coffee. I was very happy when I passed the windows and realized the next door was to Family Dollar. I only had a half hour left so I was careful and well behaved and next time I’m grabbing a bigger basket! But this is where I found a special little something for me:

Isn’t it just SO Nani? I collect coffee mugs and I just adore the word art with a single word or subject in many fonts and it’s the word coffee! My little giftie for me was only a dollar and a large size from my Keurig brewer with a tablespoon of Coffeemate is a perfect fit! I love my new mug! They have a mug that says cappuccino in orange and cocoa in purple too. I may have to plan another trip to Family Dollar after the holidays. The really good news to me was when David came home for lunch I showed him my new mug and I told him it was only a dollar. He smiled. He understands that a good deal on a mug I really like is the same thing as a good sale on model train cars that fit his layout for him. .Ah, marital bliss!

I Love Being a Secret Santa!

I just want to give a “shout out” about how totally awesome Suzanne at The Coloradolady is for taking on the big job of coordinating the Secret Santa Soiree This is the third year I’m participating and I just love it!

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. That’s the real reason I’ve blogged so little. I’ve been depressed, actually down, me! I don’t mean to make light of it. I’m a super-optimist and I always have been, so chronically bouncing between happy and sad makes me..well, it makes me sad! I decided to talk to a counselor about it. I want to talk to someone who can professionally ask me the questions I’m not asking myself and someone for whom I don’t feel a need to “fake it” if I’m in one of those sad moods to keep them from worrying. I’ve been feeling happier since making the appointment. I’m confident that this will work and get me back to being me.

That actually does tie-in to the Secret Santa Soiree. When I got my Santee for this year all kinds of ideas started. I did some reading; my Santee’s blog, looked up and learned about some things she likes, looked up some photos. This is one of my favorite parts of the swap. I love learning new things and getting a feel for what gift or gifts would be very special.

In the past there’s been one idea, one part of the gift that was a mission for me. Something I had to search for. Christmas shopping has always been like that for me; there are one or two gifts every year that I get in my mind and have to search for. It’s so much easier now with the Internet. That’s how David got his jar of Argentinian Dulce de Leche last year. For a few years he’d comment about the incredible caramel spread he had in Argentina. One of my holiday missions was to find a jar of it even if I had to pay to get it imported. Both years so far I was inspired to search for part of the gifts I gave my Santee and this year was the same.

There was a perfect item that I really wanted to find. I knew in my mind a general idea of what it would look like and was sure I'd just “know” when I saw it. I spent a few hours searching today. A few hours on the internet is the same as a few weeks a couple decades ago! I saw it and I did just “know.” I hope my Santee “knows” when she sees it!

I’ll be taking advantage of the powerchair and paratransit to finish my SS shopping and do a little more Christmas shopping next week Don’t worry, the UPS guy won’t miss me; I still do most of my shopping the week of Cyber Monday!

And that is all it took today to keep me out of the bad and into a really great mood!

The All Day Post

Good soggy Wednesday! That is not a complaint about the weather, I’m glad for the rain. I had one of those mornings where I woke up and could barely get up off the bed because my back hurt so bad. Then when I did finally get out, after a generous coating of Icy Hot, I could barely walk to the bathroom or moved to get dressed. It never hits me why this happens but later after whining about how much I hurt I noticed how dark it still was at 9 AM. I usually remember that the barometric pressure just before it rains really wreaks havoc on my back and knees. Salvation comes when the rains come down, the pressure changes and I can walk again without the discomfort instead of pain.

In the boring world of talking about health, which makes me sound like an old lady, I get the pleasure of being crammed into a tube like sausage meat with supersonic earplugs for 90 minutes of MRI fun! I have prescriptions for two MRIs and I’m getting them done back-to-back so I only have to be stuffed in once. That’s my annual brain MRI for my MS doctor and the lower spine so I can see a specialist about steroid injections. I know I didn’t really want those but the discomfort and weakness has become pain and weakness more often than not. Hopefully, ideally, if I get rid of some of the pain I’ll be able to exercise better and get my muscles a little bit better.

Rina at Fogo, table-side service with 16 different meats

Pop will be 69 years old on Friday! We celebrated in Indianapolis on Sunday. With Pop, Dave and me all living in different states now we take turns choosing the restaurant in our home state and gathering to celebrate Pop the weekend before or after his birthday. This year he chose Fogo de Chao, fantastic Brazilian steakhouse. Fogo de Chao is a fabulous dining experience great food! After an extensive salad bar that includes luncheon meats and cheeses you flip your coaster so the green side is up and “gauchos” who rove the room with 16 different types of meats stop to cut off whatever choices that portions you desire. It’s definitely not a vegetarian restaurant!

I got my Santee for this year’s Secret Santa Soiree, hosted by Suzanne at The Colorado Lady. I always love the day I get to “meet” the person I get to shop for! I won’t say anything about her except that I already have ideas dancing in my head and it’s going to be a ton of fun to find gifts for her!

Okay and last for now, remember I said I was going to do some sort of giveaway when I reached 100 on the Google mug rack? Well I was there, right at 100 for about 2 weeks, Now I’m at 98. I’m going to convince myself that those 2 left Google and not The Chronicles of Nani. It’s NOT that I have followers who were only loyal as long as I was loyal to the memes!

I need to really wrap this up now! I’ve been writing a paragraph at a time all day. I’ll have more thoughts soon!

Spoiled: Thank You Secret Santa!

I’m sorry if the drama was mean, leaving essentially a cliff hanger.

When last I blogged, our hero, Secret Santa, had sent a large box that was precariously clinging to the bottom step of Nani’s side door…

Back to our story...

David got home after work and a grocery stop and brought the box in around 9. I am not the “wait until Christmas” type at all with gifts. When I give a gift, please open it. If I’m there I want to see you open it because that’s part of the joy of giving. The same with that phone call or email when I can’t be there when you open it. It’s not that I need to hear a thank you; I just need to know you got it and enjoyed it. And the needing to know the “thinking of you” got the intended smile goes with receiving too. I am 46 years old and I still get excited and want to know what’s in a package for me. I’ve said before and it’s my gift creed; “Receiving makes you feel loved. Giving makes you feel worth loving.” It’s true, a whole package. It doesn’t ever have to be give and receive from the same person, but in the greater world I guess I need both.

Now that box!

It was a box that seemed to never empty! All kinds of packages, each tied with a polka dot ribbon. My Santa knows about my thing with polka dots! Those ribbons will, among other uses, definitely be used as Smash book accents!

It started with a Peppermint Mocha. :) I mean it started with Boyd’s Bear bearing an Arch Card that will definitely buy a couple of Peppermint Mochas!

I smiled as the "loot" reminded me of the stockings Mom made with all kinds of gifts, fun and sweet, useful and spoiling. But Mom didn’t knit and I didn’t open hand-made items!

Isn’t it beautiful? I’ve been more and more attracted to the orange and pink combinations lately and of course purple has long been a color that I love alongside other colors.  I have a set of Pandora-style beads that I wear on my bracelet that goes with it and it’s a perfect pairing for my pink winter coat! It’s soft and warm; I know this because I immediately put it on after I opened it. And did I say it’s beautiful? Oh, guess I did, but it deserves to be said again; it’s beautiful!

After David saw all the packages on the table in front of my computer he took it on to make dinner, since I was acting like a kid on Christmas morning. About half-way through opening, he suggested a break so I could eat.

Some of the other wonderful things from my box included a set of mini pitchers, perfect for cream, gravies, sauces, and they match the dream kitchen that is in boxes right now, but will come to life in the next kitchen!

I also got a bag of Godiva Gems Milk Chocolate. YUM! We have bags of candies that we bought for the Christmas party that we won’t open because we are both better disciplined if they are put away in the buffet unopened until next week. David is the other gender’s equivalent of me when it comes to chocoholics, which means he is a chocovore but can eat key lime pie without feeling like he’s cheating on chocolate; me, notsomuch. But if we’re sharing dessert it always chocolate! So when I opened the Gems after dinner while I finished opening gifts and offered him one the answer was a happy “yes, please!”

The next packages were some paper things. There is a magnetic-backed pad with a green bow with various kitchen gadgets in green and gray on the background. For a kitchen gadget nut with a green dream kitchen, well, awesome! There’s also a set of fifty-two 2013 calendar pages with the whole year calendar on the left and the days of the week and space for notes or appointments on the right. That might be something for the woman cave.

These things I can definitely use for my new Smash book obsession. It’s not a full addiction yet, but I catch myself wishing I could do a Smash page in between cookies or grumbling about cleaning when I could be playing with the Smash book. We’ll see how crazy I get in January when I have more free time. (I’ll be counting points instead of baking calories again!) There are a dozen packs of tags, borders and flat and dimensional stickers.  (Can't wait to play!)

The frame is on an easel, a very classy look. I think it’s begging for a nice photo of David and me. The couple already there is cute, but we're cuter.

If you’ve read any of the Monday Mug Shots you know that I collect mugs and every mug has a story. This one tells me to dream big. Every day, Secret Santa, every day. Now this mug will have the always hopeful thoughts that naturally go with it, most notably I have a “try and stop me” attitude about continuing to do my holiday baking every year and this package came in while I was doing said baking. But the main story about this mug is the generosity of my awesome Secret Santa 2012!

There was also a pair of bag clips, which we used a ton, in green, shampoo, shower gel and bubble bath in Peppermint Bark scent and a cupcake-shaped key-cover with lots of frosting polka dotted with sprinkles. It’s very cute and will be great for my backpack when I need my house key but not all the other things on my key ring when I take transit for appointments.

The last gift I opened made me happy-squeal. I got socks! What I lack in usually woman-common shoe-love I make up for in socks-love. 2 pairs representing my favorite colors. There are the blue ones with the purple circle-dots and the cream-colored ones with a beautiful flourish design at the top in green. David was especially interested in seeing the socks since he never considered socks a decent gift and it makes me happy as a house elf* when someone gives me socks!

From the gorgeous scarf that I’d still be wearing right now if I wasn’t blogging between trays in the oven to the totally Nani socks and every gift in between, I am totally spoiled by my sweet, sweet Secret Santa! Here’s a big {{{thank you hug}}} from me!

I know my Santee enjoyed her gifts from me; she already posted that they arrived. It was a great Soiree for me on both the giving and receiving ends!  Now off to read some more blogs and see if I can figure out who my Santa is so I can thank her on her blog! The box came from Texas, but then again the box I sent didn’t come from Ohio and Suzanne said there were a few gifts sent from other than the Santa’s place of origin. If you’re here looking for possible clues, read back a few posts; I’ve been to a few states over the past week or so. Hehehe…


*It’s always a good time for a Harry Potter reference  House Elf

Humph!

Remember me complaining about the post office leaving packages on the steps where I can’t pick them up? Remember when I said they didn’t even make an attempt at waiting for someone to answer the door? Remember that I called the post office and they said they were making a note on our address to leave the packages on the front porch?

I was ten feet away from the door when they knocked. I yelled “Just a minute!” When I got to the door the delivery guy was still outside getting into his truck and I yelled “Hey, I need help!” He drove away.

My Secret Santa package is still sitting on the step waiting for David to get home. It’s been since 12:30. :(

It’s For Real This Time (I Hope)

And Now, The REAL Joey

So, I made a big deal about my old computer dying and a new computer, la-lala… I’d done a few scrapbook pages and posted a blog and well, this past Monday afternoon, BAM; no Internet. It did a self-assessment and told me there was an internal networking problem. It did it once an hour and then three times in an hour. Back to the Geeks.

The key to fixing the problem, on my brand new computer that I’d had for four days and just finished personalizing and moving my software and files into, was that they had to make it repeat the seemingly chronic but intermittent problem. While I was right there and the Geek was playing with it, it worked just fine.

“Are you sure it’s not a problem with your router or modem at home?”

Let’s see, there are two other computers in the house; a Mac and a PC, a desktop and a laptop and the laptop is also new and running Windows 8 like mine, yet mine is the only one that says it has an internal network connection problem. I’m pretty sure it’s not my router or modem. But for a charge they’ll send someone to our house to check out the modem. Um, no, I’m quite sure there is nothing wrong with the modem, my new computer is the only one that says it has an internal network problem.

When I called after an email saying they couldn’t replicate the problem I had a choice. I could take it home and bring it back if the problem returned or I could exchange it for another new computer because it’s within the 30 days to return it. I had the computer for four days, but given the time after sale for it to arrive and the downtime back at the store being looked at, my 30 days was half over. Who’s to say the problem won’t resurface on day 31? So instead of the old-new computer with all my stuff on it, I brought home a new-new computer to reinstall everything on.


The good news is that in loading the stuff I already had on it, I got to really know Windows 8 so getting back to the point where I was took a day instead of four! Actually, it was less than a day.

Saturday after I installed my browsers, I checked my email. I got my partner for this year’s Secret Santa Soiree! I enjoyed getting to know Linda of Linda’s Bee Hive last year and picking out gifts especially for her that I knew I was going to do it again this year! My partner this year is so very different than me, yet a kindred soul in many ways too. I spent a few hours Saturday reading her blog and by Saturday night I had some gift ideas. Suzanne at The Coloradolady is hosting the Soiree again this year. Coordinating people who may or may not know each other well, matching up partners and keeping track of when gifts are sent and fielding any questions is a cumbersome job and the generosity of her time and efforts is a wonderful gift to all of us participating. Thank you Suzanne, for being the embodiment of the community part of the Holiday Spirit!

Okay, that’s my check-in for now. I’ll be blogging everything my brain has been screaming to blog about since November began this week. Well, the good stuff anyway.

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

I’m A Secret Santa!

The first thing I’ll do today is tell you all what fun this is! I remember doing Secret Santa at a number of past jobs and it was so much fun, especially in larger companies where you may draw the name of someone you don’t know well. Investigating, talking to their friends and finding the right gifts to make them smile was so much fun. Of course right now, I’m not working and having been a self-employed sole proprietor before that, it’s been a long time! I’m excited to be part of the Secret Santa Soiree, organized by Suzanne, The Coloradolady.

You can go to The Coloradolady to sign up to be in the soiree. The only prerequisite to join is you have to have a blog. There is a questionnaire to fill out after you join, but your blog is where your secret Santa gets to know you! The spending limit is a flexible $20, which means you can spend more, but don’t expect that your Santa will. I think that’s fair. In hard times, people can’t be as generous as their hearts may want to be, but you still can’t beat the feeling of giving. Whether it’s putting your extra pennies in the penny cup at the convenience store, saying “yes” when your own child wants a little something from the toy aisle at the grocery store, making a contribution to a soup kitchen or saving up to buy that special gift for your parents, giving just enriches your soul. I’ve found that nothing replaces that good all over feeling.

I was seven when the kids at school were talking trash about Santa, that he wasn’t real. How could they be so mean about someone who was so loving, so giving? When I talked to my Mom about it after school, she told me that they were part right. Santa is not a real person and he is not the magical guy I thought he was. She told me that Santa was a spirit of love and giving and that when you’re old enough to know that, you are old enough to BE Santa. She also told me that it wouldn’t be fair to say anything to my little brother because I was old enough to make Christmas magic, but did I think he was? Well, no, of course I didn’t. “Davey” needed to get the Christmas magic a little longer before he could make it. I remember that I felt a little sad. I didn’t want to be that grown up yet. I wished Mom had lied to me or that my classmates hadn’t said anything. They were so mean to make me grow up too fast! I was absolutely NOT the person who told Dave because I wished I hadn’t been told yet. But I did learn to really love being Santa.

Now I get to be that magic for someone I haven’t met yet. It’s like Santa in that you don’t really know who doing the giving and it’s creating a piece of the magic that is Christmas. Totally cool! You can join the Secret Santa Soiree too! Just click on the link below to go directly to the announcement and sign-up page. It has all of the information you need to participate and be one of us, the Secret Santas! While you’re there, check out all of the neat stuff on Suzanne’s blog! I personally LOVE Vintage Thingy Thursday! I keep thinking I’ll contribute some of my antiquey things from my Grandparents, but the life of a student, my candle is always near the middle with both ends burning! Need more wax!

Join the Santa gang this year. It’ll make you feel good!



Links
Join the Secret Santa Soiree