Thank you to frausorge for the wonderful Secret Santa package!
I got home from the usual holiday shuffle from aunt to aunt today to find a package in my PO box so apologies for the few days delay, but a huge HUGE thank you to frausorge for the wonderful Secret Santa package and thank you as well to the wonderfully industrious ikel89 for organizing this exchange every year!
First of all, I took a picture of the box itself because literally every single thing inside was wrapped. This is a commitment to the bit that I can only admire and be awed by, not emulate.
All of the packages laid out altogether, just to drive in the amount of effort and care that went into this. Really, I'm so touched, thank you so much.
After unwrapping them all, let me lay them out in some sense of category.
Firstly, the books. I'm interested to read the top two which are short story collections, while the bottom is an utterly beautiful art collection from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Expo, which I've already devoured because I just can't help myself when it comes to artbooks.
Next up in my accessories I'd mentioned only that I don't really accessorize but I'm forever losing my black hairbands that I use to keep my hair away from my face, so I laughed when I unwrapped this package to find the exact kinds i use 😂😂😂
Next up, I mentioned I like going biking, and frausorge included something in the package that made me begin to suspect mind-reading is going on here, because it is a clip on light, and my lights had actually died out so I was planning to get a new set after the snows clear out in the new year, so this will do nicely. and the lights are seriously bright which is really nice because it actually is quiet dark even in summer months when i set out for work in the mornings, so bright lights are quite necessary.
There were truly a COLOSSAL amount of snacks in the package like really after i took them out, i'm not sure how i can fit them all back into the box, some arcane packing engineering was involved here. to begin with peppermint candy and sherbet wheels jelly candy. the peppermint candy tastes like peppermint candy, which is all that any respectable peppermint candy should taste like. the sherbert wheels are not as sweet as usual jelly, they have a bit of a tartness to them, and i like that actually.
Next up I've grouped the box of cookie snacks here, so they might seem small in the picture, but know that each of these boxes are like twice the size of my hand, and HEFTY. The first box (top left) is butterzeug butter cookies in fun shapes, they're really the perfect balance of flavour for me to have with tea (more on that later). The next two boxes/packs are both gingerbread cookies with the former being just a bit harder on the tongue than the latter, which actually makes for a nice experience to swap them one by one when eating. However, once again I will be levying mind-reading accusations here, for you see, the first gingerbread cookie appears like clockwork at the local fancy people grocery store every december and every december i trot out to that grocery store specifically for this cookie, so it was a pleasant surprise to have it show up in my gift parcel this time.
The fourth box is vanillekipterl (crescent-shaped vanilla cookies), spiked spekulatius cookies, and zimtsterne (cinnamon stars). I haven't opened these yet because there's only so much cookies I can eat in one day, but I'm looking forward to trying them!!
Next up, I mentioned liking to drink plain black tea, and what was in the package but an extremely cute cylindrical package of black tea.
Possibly just the packaging nerd in me, but I was really taken by the silky softness of the tea bag, which my camera can barely capture the true texture of, but in real life it has a really beautiful pearly sheen to it that's just lovely to look at.
Next up, I am always ALWAYS so grateful for any kind of hand moisturizers because my skin gets easily dry/cracked in the winter and I go through tubes and tubes of them by the time spring rolls around, so this thick boy was nice to get in the package.
Finally, I asked for good book/poetry/play recommendations and frausorge kindly provided a list in the card itself that was included in the package, which I won't be showing for obvious privacy reasons, but I'm excited to try them out in addition to the books above, especially the poetry recs!!
In summary, thank you so much frausorge for the amount of care and WORK you put into this. Every year it feels like my santas inspire me to be a much better santa for the next year, and this year is no exception. Happy Holidays to you and I hope you're having a great break!
As well, I would be remiss if I don't also thank ikel89 for always doing the slog of organizing this year after year and especially this year as I straight up forgot to hand my application in on time 🤡 thank you so much for your hard work Kay!