secret sneeky-face santa

As some of you may know, our little family was "secret santa-ed" this year. I was out finishing up some errands before heading out to DC, and T was home, W was asleep. And I get a call.

"Honey, there is a bag on the front porch. I think someone is doing the 12 days of Christmas."

"Well, go see what it is," I respond.

"Okay, it looks like, gosh, a really big bag. And there are presents. A lot of presents!" he says.

So, I get home from errands. T cannot wait to open them. We let W open his the next day. They were very nice. The one for me was perfect, the one for T was hilarious (more on that)*, and W's were great. And we LOVE our joint present (a dinner out at our favorite place. I won't say where it is because then I won't be able to keep all the suspects clear-- see 2 paragraphs down if that sentence does not make sense).

T and I are very grateful. HOWEVER, I guess it must be told that I am really horrible with surprises and secrets and probably all things that start with the letter S (consider my track record previously stated). When I was in college, a boy sent my apartment a dozen roses on Valentine's Day. I called the company they were sent through until someone told me who sent them. It was more than one phone call. I tell people what present I got them WAY before I give it to them, and even when T proposed, I was trying to launch a covert operation to find out if it was happening that night.

All conversations I have had about ANYTHING were running through my head. Who had we told our favorite restaurant to? (LOTS of suspects there). Who knew I was leaving town early to go to DC? (EVEN more are added to the list). Who had been in our house and seen my job chart for me and T? (I did call one friend and tell her she had to be honest and tell me if she was near my house at that point. She wasn't.) But even more than those conversations, I was thinking about the ones I had involving the economy, how much it was going to cost for us to go to DC for the holidays (and my sister's wedding), the problems we had been having at our place, how T and I were not doing presents for each other this year..... those were the ones I was thinking about. And I was horrified.

Did I give someone the impression that we are destitute? That we needed someone else's generosity to save our Christmas? Could my discussions have not seemed like that at all, but complaining and decrying the sad state of our lives? T and I are happy and frugal and loving it. While working in finance, I saw how lots of Americans put Christmas on credit, and that is something T and I will never do. Also, not getting "stuff" is okay with us. Those are the ideals and the thought processes we have ingrained in our marriage.

I can think of so many others that needed this more than we did. I'm grateful for it, it was so nice, but I really want to be able to say, "Thank-you." I LIKE to be able to thank people.

So, WHOEVER YOU ARE: THANKS from us, the Stampers. We are dying to know who you are and really like our presents. We hope you do not think we are destitute. I am resigned to the fact that I will never know who you are. And I am grateful for generosity and love from people we know. I guess it is good I, yet again, am aware of my complete lack of control about surprises.

*and because I promised, here is stuff about T's present-- It was the movie Hollywood Homicide. It stars Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett. Neither of us had seen it. There are a few potential reasons it was given to T:

1. It is an action movie. They figured Todd is a guy and will love an action movie.

2. It is awful and hilarious (like Ultraviolet, Bandidas and AeonFlux) and they knew we would watch it and love it and laugh our heads off.

3. They know about T's secret crush on Josh Hartnett. (Just kidding about that one)

Whichever it is, you can bet we'll be watching Hollywood Homicide instead of The Christmas Story for many years to come.

Thank you for a new Christmas tradition!