Happy 2016! and Secret Santa Squee Post
First of all, Happy New Year, dear f-list! There is a distressing number of people I know for whom 2015 sucked tremendously, so here's a wish for a much, much better 2016! And those of you who enjoyed a lovely year, may 2016 be even better!
С новым годом!
*
I woke up the morning of the 31st to the best surprise: my Secret Santa package from the Secret Santa exchange run by Our Benevolent Santa Overlord ikel89 had arrived -- a glorious package full of beautiful and tasty things from the awesome alenky_cveto4ek! At the BEST possible time, too, because New Year's Eve is EXACTLY when we do present exchanges.
I got even more excited when I saw the blue Pochta Rossii box that has become so familiar to me:
And could only marvel at how pretty everything inside was. Lavender tissue paper in my favorite shade!
Everything wrapped so prettily in two kinds of paper, with ribbon and little holiday stickers all over!
And even more awesome unwrapped:
The parcel contained an assortment of my favorite Russian treats: kukuruznye palochki (which I'd asked for specifically on the chance that my Santa was Russian, as I do every year; they're basically sweet Cheetos, but SO GOOD -- the favorite snack of my childhood, and something I haven't been able to find ANYWHERE outside of Russia, and believe me, I've tried), and zefir (kind of like meringue, except soft), and gril'yazh (chocolate candy with, like, hard toffee and nuts inside?), which is my favorite kind of Russian candy.
And also a a beautiful chocolate bar, flavored with pepper, which is exactly the kind of chocolate combination I like tasting -- sweet and savory. It is so pretty, too -- the prettiest chocolate I've ever seen outside of, like an artisanal bakery:
The chocolate is rich, with just the right little kick from the pepper, and the little pink bits, I'm not sure what they are, but they sort of pop in your mouth -- very tasty, and not like anything I've tried before.
But of course this was not everything. There was a very adorable and VERY TIMELY plush monkey (in a super-adorable paw-printed box decorated with banana stickers, awww!), because Alenka's family also does the Chinese Zodiac animal at New Year's Eve celebration thing that my family does, and 2016 will be the year of the monkey (come February; but Russians don't care about the Lunar New Year being different from the Western one).
The monkey came with us to the celebration at my parents' that night, and sat on the table next to my champagne glass :D
There was also a very cool little doodle-book for boring meetings, with prompts for ways to pass the time, like playing battleship, making a voodoo doll of your boss, casting the movie of your life (about a circus) with your coworkers, or populating the queue for getting into hell:
This page suggests challenging a colleague to a game of battleship instead of listening to the elaborate thoughts of the finance controller:
Tally of days until vacation:
Queue for hell, with whoever you want to be drawn in:
Voodoo doll. The instructions say: "1) make the doll look like your boss 2) act as your heart and stapler tell you"
Office dares, like "stick your head in the accounting department and yell 'the IRS is coming!'" and "tell a courier you love them".
Very amusing! And as Alenka pointed out, thanks to being in Russian, nobody at my work would have any idea what it was about :P
But my favorite part of the Santa package was the gorgeous purple box that Alenka had decoupaged herself. I adore hand-made things, being totally useless myself in this regard, and this box is so pretty! It is a rich, rich purple on the outside, and a beautiful lavender inside -- my two favorite shades of purple (which is my second favorite color) -- and it's got this abstract-but-still-plantlike design which I adore, and it is hexagonal. HEXAGONAL! I love hexagonal things, especially boxes. It is the perfect, perfect box for me -- and I'm not surprised Alenka intuited this, being a conoisseur of tiny boxes herself. It is currently sitting on the shelf next to the small green decoupage chest Alenka had made for me previously, and a purple wooden box from Krakow, and it fits in so perfectly there, it's clear that shelf spot was waiting JUST for this box!
But that's not all. There was also a really pretty card, made to stand up in 3D fashion, full of wintry critters, a perfect winter holiday card for me. There's a weasel thing! and a snowy owl! and some small cute birds and rodents -- it's perfect!
And, of course, a charming letter from alenky_cveto4ek, on quadrile paper, which Alenka saw fit to apologize for but which I was actually thrilled with, because quadrile paper reminds me of grading my mother's math exams in Kiev and of engineering notebooks at Cal, which I'm very nostalgic for. I actually go and buy some quadrile paper notebooks when I'm in Europe, though I have no earthly use for them, because I just like notebooks v kletochku. So!
And of course the letter was full of lovely sentiments and heartwarmth and supremely timely Novy God wishes, and things couldn't have worked out better if the actual Ded Moroz had hand-delivered the package to me. It was magical! :D
And set the tone for the rest of my New Year's Eve celebration, as it turned out, which was totally great. I guess starting the day with my favorite Russian sweets as my breakfast tends to do that for a holiday :D Thank you again, dearest alenky_cveto4ek, for all the goodies and the holiday cheer they brought! <3
And my Secret Santa happiness was complete, because a day or two earlier my dear sephystabbity, who was my Santa Recipient this year, had gotten *her* parcel, and had written me such a lovely message about it.
This was the first year that both my Santa and Giftee were already friends of mine, which made things a little bit different, but no less fun. ♥ ♥ ♥ to generous, thoughtful alenky_cveto4ek (who apparently also possesses some form of time magic), to darling, gallant sephystabbity (world's most amazing gift recipient) and to ikel89, who has been master-minding the whole glorious thing with hearthwarmth and flair, as befits one of the Good Targaryens.
<333
С новым годом!
*
I woke up the morning of the 31st to the best surprise: my Secret Santa package from the Secret Santa exchange run by Our Benevolent Santa Overlord ikel89 had arrived -- a glorious package full of beautiful and tasty things from the awesome alenky_cveto4ek! At the BEST possible time, too, because New Year's Eve is EXACTLY when we do present exchanges.
I got even more excited when I saw the blue Pochta Rossii box that has become so familiar to me:
And could only marvel at how pretty everything inside was. Lavender tissue paper in my favorite shade!
Everything wrapped so prettily in two kinds of paper, with ribbon and little holiday stickers all over!
And even more awesome unwrapped:
The parcel contained an assortment of my favorite Russian treats: kukuruznye palochki (which I'd asked for specifically on the chance that my Santa was Russian, as I do every year; they're basically sweet Cheetos, but SO GOOD -- the favorite snack of my childhood, and something I haven't been able to find ANYWHERE outside of Russia, and believe me, I've tried), and zefir (kind of like meringue, except soft), and gril'yazh (chocolate candy with, like, hard toffee and nuts inside?), which is my favorite kind of Russian candy.
And also a a beautiful chocolate bar, flavored with pepper, which is exactly the kind of chocolate combination I like tasting -- sweet and savory. It is so pretty, too -- the prettiest chocolate I've ever seen outside of, like an artisanal bakery:
The chocolate is rich, with just the right little kick from the pepper, and the little pink bits, I'm not sure what they are, but they sort of pop in your mouth -- very tasty, and not like anything I've tried before.
But of course this was not everything. There was a very adorable and VERY TIMELY plush monkey (in a super-adorable paw-printed box decorated with banana stickers, awww!), because Alenka's family also does the Chinese Zodiac animal at New Year's Eve celebration thing that my family does, and 2016 will be the year of the monkey (come February; but Russians don't care about the Lunar New Year being different from the Western one).
The monkey came with us to the celebration at my parents' that night, and sat on the table next to my champagne glass :D
There was also a very cool little doodle-book for boring meetings, with prompts for ways to pass the time, like playing battleship, making a voodoo doll of your boss, casting the movie of your life (about a circus) with your coworkers, or populating the queue for getting into hell:
This page suggests challenging a colleague to a game of battleship instead of listening to the elaborate thoughts of the finance controller:
Tally of days until vacation:
Queue for hell, with whoever you want to be drawn in:
Voodoo doll. The instructions say: "1) make the doll look like your boss 2) act as your heart and stapler tell you"
Office dares, like "stick your head in the accounting department and yell 'the IRS is coming!'" and "tell a courier you love them".
Very amusing! And as Alenka pointed out, thanks to being in Russian, nobody at my work would have any idea what it was about :P
But my favorite part of the Santa package was the gorgeous purple box that Alenka had decoupaged herself. I adore hand-made things, being totally useless myself in this regard, and this box is so pretty! It is a rich, rich purple on the outside, and a beautiful lavender inside -- my two favorite shades of purple (which is my second favorite color) -- and it's got this abstract-but-still-plantlike design which I adore, and it is hexagonal. HEXAGONAL! I love hexagonal things, especially boxes. It is the perfect, perfect box for me -- and I'm not surprised Alenka intuited this, being a conoisseur of tiny boxes herself. It is currently sitting on the shelf next to the small green decoupage chest Alenka had made for me previously, and a purple wooden box from Krakow, and it fits in so perfectly there, it's clear that shelf spot was waiting JUST for this box!
But that's not all. There was also a really pretty card, made to stand up in 3D fashion, full of wintry critters, a perfect winter holiday card for me. There's a weasel thing! and a snowy owl! and some small cute birds and rodents -- it's perfect!
And, of course, a charming letter from alenky_cveto4ek, on quadrile paper, which Alenka saw fit to apologize for but which I was actually thrilled with, because quadrile paper reminds me of grading my mother's math exams in Kiev and of engineering notebooks at Cal, which I'm very nostalgic for. I actually go and buy some quadrile paper notebooks when I'm in Europe, though I have no earthly use for them, because I just like notebooks v kletochku. So!
And of course the letter was full of lovely sentiments and heartwarmth and supremely timely Novy God wishes, and things couldn't have worked out better if the actual Ded Moroz had hand-delivered the package to me. It was magical! :D
And set the tone for the rest of my New Year's Eve celebration, as it turned out, which was totally great. I guess starting the day with my favorite Russian sweets as my breakfast tends to do that for a holiday :D Thank you again, dearest alenky_cveto4ek, for all the goodies and the holiday cheer they brought! <3
And my Secret Santa happiness was complete, because a day or two earlier my dear sephystabbity, who was my Santa Recipient this year, had gotten *her* parcel, and had written me such a lovely message about it.
This was the first year that both my Santa and Giftee were already friends of mine, which made things a little bit different, but no less fun. ♥ ♥ ♥ to generous, thoughtful alenky_cveto4ek (who apparently also possesses some form of time magic), to darling, gallant sephystabbity (world's most amazing gift recipient) and to ikel89, who has been master-minding the whole glorious thing with hearthwarmth and flair, as befits one of the Good Targaryens.
<333