Friday, December 7, 2007

Santa Came to my House Today!!

Imagine my surprise when I came home today to find a package sitting outside my door!! I heart getting presents!! I guess that's the one thing that will never change the older we get. It was labeled S.S. My secret Santa package arrived today!! Now, I guess I could have done the really cool thing and taken pictures of the beautifully wrapped presents....but no. I was too anxious to dig in! I guess that's another thing that will never change.




I do have to say as soon as I opened the first present, I knew exactly who it was from. I had read a review posted by my Santa on Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis a few weeks ago. And it looked fantastic. So I decided to put it on my "Wish List". And apparently Santa noticed!! Of course, Santa hit on 3 things that I love: Books, Chocolate, and Saving the Planet.



Candy rocks! Especially chocolate. And I got a box of chocolate along with some candy canes. (Mental note: must hide before the rugrats get home from school. Or said chocolate will be a goner!)



But the last is probably the most special. The little Christmas tree and the certificate meant the world to me. 10 Trees planted in my name. What a special present!! I have to say, it actually brought tears to my eyes. OK. So I'm a sap when it comes to this stuff. What can I say?

So...I have to send an especially heartfelt THANKS to Carl. What a wonderful Santa you are! (for the record, I'm sending a special thank you your way. Hopefully, you will get it next week!)

21 comments:

Carl V. Anderson said...

I've been on the edge of my seat all day hoping that you would get it today. The thing I was most excited about was the tree gift as well. I have to admit that I saw the idea in last month's Better Homes and Gardens magazine and I thought it was just a terrific and inexpensive gift idea. I unfortunately screwed up when I typed in things for the certificate thus you had a gift for "Christmas 2997". Since I figured neither of us would be alive then I had to Sharpie it to fix it. Unfortunately once you hit 'purchase' your certificate is as you typed it. So glad that it looks like my little tree survived the mail intact.

I'm glad you enjoyed everything. I was lucky to find a place that still had Mary Modern on the shelves and I look forward to your thoughts on it whenever you get to it, whether it is 'yay' or 'nay'.

I had a ball putting it all together and am thrilled you are happy with everything. Merry early Christmas!!!

Stephanie said...

Again, I have to say Thank You!! It was a wonderful surprise to come home to!!

And lucky you...I was on my way out, so I picked up something to say Thank you in return!! Hopefully, you don't already have it!

Chris said...

Aw, how sweet! Enjoy!

Ana S. said...

Such perfect presents! It's so exciting to see people starting to receive their packages. I love seeing everyone's reactions. 4 people got their presents in the last two days and, not surprisingly, in every single case the presents included books :P

I put a Mr. Linky up so that people can link to their Secret Santa posts. Do add this one!

Stephanie said...

Thanks Chris!!

Nymeth - I just added a link for this post!! Thanks again for putting this all together. It was fun!

chrisa511 said...

What an awesome gift!! Of course Carl came up with one hell of a package :) He always does. That tree idea is great! I may have to use that one for some gifts. Wonderful idea.

DesLily said...

oh wow! That's some "package!" a book (no real surprise there lol) some candy to much while you read, and a "tree!" Now you have to live long enough to grow your own forest!!

Kailana said...

Very nice present!

The Bookworm said...

wonderful gifts!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Hey congrats, even more presents coming your way! I see you won a book on Colleen Gleason's site!

Stephanie said...

Chris - Yeah....Carl is the man!! I love the idea that there are trees planted in a forest in my name. Very cool.

Thanks Deslily, Kelly and Naida!! Don't you just love getting presents??

Carl - Well...snap! Thanks for the heads up. Looks like it was my lucky day yesterday!

Debi said...

Oh yes, you certainly were lucky that Carl got your name! He's simply amazing, isn't he? So creative and thoughtful!

I have to admit I got tears in my eyes just reading your post...your joy was evident! That little tree...wow, just the coolest gift ever!

Dewey said...

I haven't been reading Carl's blog long, but when I saw he was joining the fun, I knew he would figure out a great gift. You can just tell from his contests and so on that he is a person who loves to give. :)

My best friend would love to have trees planted in her name. I wonder if I can figure out how one goes about getting such a gift!

Suey said...

Very very cool.

This is being so fun seeing what everyone is getting!

tanabata said...

Very cool! Happy early Christmas! :)

Carl V. Anderson said...

Dewey, it is very easy. Just log on to the Arbor Day website and click on Trees as holiday gift ideas (www.arborday.com) It is very inexpensive to donate trees. You get to fill in who it is for and who it is from and the reason why you are doing that. Simple as can be...just double check your typing before you purchase or you'll mess it up like I did. ;)

Melody said...

Wow, such wonderful gifts! And congrats on winning a book at Colleen Gleason's site!

jpderosnay said...

hmmm....... yes... i WONDER who that could've come from!?

what wonderful little surprises! he's our own little blogland elf, is carl :)

Andi said...

That is SO COOL! I got teary just reading about the trees. And I can't WAIT to read Mary Modern.

Serena said...

what a great gift idea. How wonderful. Good thinking Carl.

I can't wait to read more of these stories about the gift exchange.

Dewey said...

I did it! I got trees for my best friend! I asked them to send me the certificate instead of printing it, because I was on my laptop out and about with no printer. So excited!