I finally was able to open my package. And out came a card and many book like objects. I wanted books. Each gift even has a note (included below).
Gifts Inside
#2 - In the season dominated by cinnamon and nutmeg, it may prove enjoyable to get some perspective!
Book on spice history - it even covers the Pope versus Spices!
#3 (Right) - This is, I am assured, a solid lump of History. It has been materialized through deft chronomancy for your edification and enjoyment.
#4 (Left) - This is also a great time of year to remember the important things in life, like never spend any time near Abe Lincoln's son.
It's only fitting that book about Sherman looks like it could be used as a weapon to knock somebody out.
#5 (Right) - A second Vowell for your literary alphabet! Perhaps this will give insight into the holiday traditions of our weird forebears.
#6 (Left) - A good time of year to be thinking warm thoughts.
Once it finally clicked who she was, I these, thanks!
#7 - Wild card!
With the weather this weekend, I can alternate playing 3DS and reading while the 3DS recharges! Awesome!
#8 - I can hardly thirst so much historical wisdom your way without giving you a change to learn what can make a man Truly Great.
It shall sit in a place of honor with by 1950s fiberglass barstools.
I am glad you like the gifts, @Kipling. I thought a mix of war history combined with a fascinating sinuous (spicy) thread tying together numerous historical situations and contexts would be cool! Also, I am a professed fan of Sarah Vowell's work and, having read several of her books, decided to buy them for you anew. I was willing to get you Sherman and Spicy History Timez sight-unseen because they seemed cool, but I wanted to make sure you had some books that I knew were quality.
I took a gamble on that 3DS game, too. I knew you had a 3DS because of the friend code in your signature, but didn't know what games you had since all of your posts are about stupid things like drawing on your personal experiences to help other people instead of useful things like "hello internet strangers here is a comprehensive list of belongings, desires, and mortal fears."
I am thrilled you are happy with the bucket of books!
Also, on a completely different note, while I'm posting in the thread, I might as well say:
It is that time of year, the annual holiday tradition where I remember the password of my photobucket account solely for this post!
I warn you in advance that some of these photos are blurry, because I am a bad person
Behold! Some gifts! There is another wrapped gift that didn't make it into the picture because I tore it open in excitement before I remembered my Festive Duties to you, my fellow gawking gift-givers.
My Santa correctly assumed I would want some comics that fell outside the traditional theme of "a convoluted decades-old soap opera full of people that happen to have superpowers". I am extremely happy with this.
I haven't read it yet, though, because I have been devouring a gift that directly challenges my sexuality, pictured below with the remainder of my shipped gift.
I tore through this book in extremely short order, with a vigor that has not yet been applied to my staggeringly massive miniatures backlog. When that vigor can be applied, however, it will be applied through these well-chosen brushes! My old brushes are ratty and gross, sustained only by my procrastination in replacing them.
Fun fact: This gift was so well-chosen that I later received it again at Christmas with its 2 sequels from my family. Jokes on THEM, though, because it is their copy, unmolested by my fervent gropings, which will be gifted anew to some sap down the line. Your copy will be interred in my Tomb of Awesome Books. It is a shelf-based tomb.
A fantastic gift!
IT INCLUDED MORE, HOWEVER
My Santa also gifted me the Humble Warner Brothers Bundle, which was perfect timing as I had been toying with the notion of buying it when I received the key back in November! It includes such games I didn't own as the F.E.A.R. trilogy, things for the Lord of the Rings MMO, Guardians of Middle Earth with DLC, Gotham City Impostors DLC, and the Mortal Kombat Kollection!
I think my santa snuck me a mo's bacon chocolate bar. Which is the best chocolate bar. I have eaten half of it already. It is amazing, thank you so much!
I am glad you like the gifts, Kipling. I thought a mix of war history combined with a fascinating sinuous (spicy) thread tying together numerous historical situations and contexts would be cool! Also, I am a professed fan of Sarah Vowell's work and, having read several of her books, decided to buy them for you anew. I was willing to get you Sherman and Spicy History Timez sight-unseen because they seemed cool, but I wanted to make sure you had some books that I knew were quality.
I took a gamble on that 3DS game, too. I knew you had a 3DS because of the friend code in your signature, but didn't know what games you had since all of your posts are about stupid things like drawing on your personal experiences to help other people instead of useful things like "hello internet strangers here is a comprehensive list of belongings, desires, and mortal fears."
I am thrilled you are happy with the bucket of books!
Also, on a completely different note, while I'm posting in the thread, I might as well say:
It is that time of year, the annual holiday tradition where I remember the password of my photobucket account solely for this post!
I warn you in advance that some of these photos are blurry, because I am a bad person
Behold! Some gifts! There is another wrapped gift that didn't make it into the picture because I tore it open in excitement before I remembered my Festive Duties to you, my fellow gawking gift-givers.
My Santa correctly assumed I would want some comics that fell outside the traditional theme of "a convoluted decades-old soap opera full of people that happen to have superpowers". I am extremely happy with this.
I haven't read it yet, though, because I have been devouring a gift that directly challenges my sexuality, pictured below with the remainder of my shipped gift.
I tore through this book in extremely short order, with a vigor that has not yet been applied to my staggeringly massive miniatures backlog. When that vigor can be applied, however, it will be applied through these well-chosen brushes! My old brushes are ratty and gross, sustained only by my procrastination in replacing them.
Fun fact: This gift was so well-chosen that I later received it again at Christmas with its 2 sequels from my family. Jokes on THEM, though, because it is their copy, unmolested by my fervent gropings, which will be gifted anew to some sap down the line. Your copy will be interred in my Tomb of Awesome Books. It is a shelf-based tomb.
A fantastic gift!
IT INCLUDED MORE, HOWEVER
My Santa also gifted me the Humble Warner Brothers Bundle, which was perfect timing as I had been toying with the notion of buying it when I received the key back in November! It includes such games I didn't own as the F.E.A.R. trilogy, things for the Lord of the Rings MMO, Guardians of Middle Earth with DLC, Gotham City Impostors DLC, and the Mortal Kombat Kollection!
...And so my Santee finally shows himself, along with the gifts I have bestowed upon him!
I still have to post my gifts, because they're awesome, but I'm going to wait until Monday since something is still coming. There's quite a story to tell, so don't close the thread yet!
A teaser for the story: USPS and Canada Post are both jerks.
Not sure if my santa will eventually reveal him/herself, or if they want me to reverse stalk them, or if they would rather remain anonymous. Reverse stalking is tempting, but would be made more difficult as I've already thrown away a few clues and packing slips.
Before Christmas I got a PM from Proxy the Elf with a code for Dungeon Defenders (with all the DLC too, near as I can tell) and letting me know that a package would be coming after Christmas. Today while I was taking my toddler to the mall to get him out of everyone's hair my husband let me know a package arrived for me, that it was heavy and it was from Berkeley. I want you to know, Santa, that I assumed Berkeley, CA. But I was wrong.
Okay, so I wrangled two of my three cats for the occasion, but as you will see, they give zero fucks about this.
Lovely wrapped gifts and candy!
There are many different kinds of wonderfully tasty looking candies in the box, mostly from this specialty candy store Chocolat Uzma Sharif. Handmade candies. I feel like I've heard of this place on Food Network. Seriously, very fancy, as you can see here:
The little book says it includes candies infused with rose water, Indian chilies, Italian espresso...they are too fancy to eat! Almost.
And some caramels (origin unknown), one of which I'm eating right now which is...heavenly, and this hazelnut crunch bar, and rare bird jelly. I had no idea birds had anything you could make jelly out of, probably because it's rare.
The little wrapped package contained a book. The Time Machine, by HG Wells. I didn't get a good picture of it by itself.
The bigger package I sort of squeezed experimentally. Another book, I wondered? Plenty of biggish paperback books out there....
Then I believe my husband can attest that the next words out of my mouth were "HOLY SHIT!"
Holy shit, Santa! Hoooollleeee shit indeed. The thread will not know that I went out on Thanksgiving to try to get one of these from Target when they were on sale-well, three different Targets, and did not manage to get one. At the first Target the employees couldn't get the case open for half an hour and the people in front of me took the last ones...well, anyway. After that I gave up on it because I had Christmas presents to buy for people who were not myself. But Santa knew because Santa is stalktacular and waded through all my surely very boring posts about Animal Crossing.
Here's a picture of the whole haul, same two cats in the background, not a single fuck being given. I even tried shaking the tissue paper at them. Nope.
So my mind was seriously blown by this, but as I'm trying to regain my mental faculties, I start wondering about the book. See, there's no note in the box. The name on the box is first initial and last name. I wonder...maybe it's a favorite book? Maybe it was on my Goodreads "to read" list? But it wasn't. Then I thought, maybe it's not another gift, maybe it's a message. In the Internet Ancient Times, back in the days of Gonads and Strife and Drudge dancing and taking off every Zig I was a Morlock. themorlocks.com is super defunct now, though you can still see the front page in the Internet Wayback Machine. I flipped through the book and there wasn't a note or anything. So now I'm wracking my brains based on the last name and address to figure out if I know my Santa, or knew him (I admit I'm assuming a "him" based solely on the writing of the address on the box) back in the day. But the thing is, I didn't know EVERYONE's last names. Santa, does Bomberman mean anything to you? Mega Man? Did I ever send you a parcel of meat? I'm trying to think of people I knew who lived in that area, against a list of people whom it could not be (since I know their names) and some who may have but I'm not 100% sure. But since it's been you know, a decade, maybe they moved there from some other area of the country, in which case I'm never going to figure it out, but I feel SO BAD not being able to figure this out considering the COMPLETELY BADASS GIFT you sent me.
I have also considered the possibility that The Time Machine is just a book, it doesn't mean anything, or maybe it means something else, like maybe the person's forum avatar has something to do with it and my Santa has never heard of Lum the Mad or ever went through a period of time with a kitchen appliance with evil eyebrows for an avatar (I had an EvilStandMixer for a while) and it's just a coincidence or it's just nothing and I'm just seriously overthinking this in which case I'll be quite embarrassed.
Well, either way, thank you SO much, mysterious Santa! This is completely awesome. And I'll keep thinking on it, unless you want to reveal yourself. But I think my husband is going to get annoyed with me if I spend any more time fine tuning this post and trying to reverse stalk you (nice looking house, btw). In fact he just came in and said to me "are you ever going to be done with what you're doing?" Soooo I better go.
The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
Gift posts like these just reinforce how bad ass the PA Secret Santas are. We give amazing gifts to perfect strangers because they feel like real family here on the forums. It's that kind of selfless generosity that is one of the reasons I like being part of this community.
You guys give better gifts than one of my RL friends. *Imagination glare*
Get this, my group of friends did a belated Christmas rolled together with New Years partying, and we had a white elephant gift exchange. You were expected to spend 25 bucks and get an honest gift that you knew friends in the group would enjoy. After all the numbers were drawn, gifts grabbed, traded and stolen, we all opened our gifts. I was the last to open mine and it was... a plastic bottle opener in the shape of a Luchador, with a price tag still on it for $8. *Failure horns* Turns out I got the one guy that had kinda drifted away from the group a couple years ago, and we only see once or twice a year at this point. Oh well, at least I know I gifted in good faith. Sorry, semi-vent over. I just know that kinda shit wouldn't happen here.
KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
I knew if I put my actual name and address on the package, it would be to easy to figure me out @mare_imbrium
On the other hand, my grandmother's name and address seems to have thrown you off my scent too much. Yes, The Time Machine is a morlocksdotcom reference. Uzma Sharif was my first culinary instructor, and I've liked some of her business posts on Facebook so you could have seen those in your feed at some point; a tiny clue, at any rate.
I had planned on making some things for you, but I waited too long and when I ended up sick the last couple of weeks I had to audible to some local tasty treats. They all have some connection to me though. Uzma taught me how to work with chocolate and made me confident enough that I start pastry school fulltime on Monday. The caramels are salted caramels, passion fruit, and raspberry. They come from Amy's Candy Shop, and I met Amy as a fellow student in another chocolate class I took last year. Rare Bird Preserves are made in my hometown of Oak Park, by a woman who I met through another student in a class I took.
When I do another batch of Kona coffee truffles I'll make sure to send you some though :-)
Oh Facebook's feed is crap, unfortunately. I'm not sure if I've ever seen any posts like that, but I get to see tons of posts about random friends who like Walmart and Samsung. =P
I'm so glad who you are is all sorted now, because honestly I was probably an hour or so away from cheating and going through the entire list of participants and searching the thread for who had already been outed as Santas for someone else.
Dear thread, yes, as you can see, G&T SS managed to match me with someone whom I already know, and since he put a false name on there (sneaky) he was the first person I thought of and the first person I immediately dismissed. At least I figured out what the book meant!
Seriously though, @Ketar thank you. It's a wonderful gift. I'm kind of speechless about it. And you tell Amy her caramels are amazing.
Secret Santa is weird like that. Last year Isy got matched to me. Two uk participants is odd enough, two uk participants 25 minutes from each other is bizarre.
Not sure if my santa will eventually reveal him/herself, or if they want me to reverse stalk them, or if they would rather remain anonymous. Reverse stalking is tempting, but would be made more difficult as I've already thrown away a few clues and packing slips.
Not sure if my santa will eventually reveal him/herself, or if they want me to reverse stalk them, or if they would rather remain anonymous. Reverse stalking is tempting, but would be made more difficult as I've already thrown away a few clues and packing slips.
Are you really curious?
Haha! Tell me I've been the victim of a self-proxy Santa scheme!
I've thought about doing that before. Can't believe it didn't occur to me earlier!
0
Options
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
edited January 2014
I'm a bad and didn't post this when I got it. In addition to several Steam games that were on my wishlist I also received a couple prizes in the mail from my Santa for my daughter (which she has been enjoying)
A wild box appears!
My daughter has a new Sounders FC stuffed monkey and ball (she especially enjoys the monkey hopping around her).
Not sure if my santa will eventually reveal him/herself, or if they want me to reverse stalk them, or if they would rather remain anonymous. Reverse stalking is tempting, but would be made more difficult as I've already thrown away a few clues and packing slips.
Are you really curious?
Haha! Tell me I've been the victim of a self-proxy Santa scheme!
I've thought about doing that before. Can't believe it didn't occur to me earlier!
In my defence, all that I did, I did in the name of Santa. Is it not, then, Santa, and not myself, who is truly responsible? Was my deception not for the betterment of Holiday Cheer? History will vindicate me!
Finally, after recovering from rather dangereous episode of over-exhaustion, I'm happy to present my own gift. And what Santa sent me? WONDERFUL ASSORTMENT OF CHOCOLATE BARS AND GOOD OLD BEHOLDER! ^_^ There is also letter from Santa, but I couldn't get readable photo of it. I will type it here little later.
A very merry Christmas to you! I saw that you have been playing some D&D this last year. I also began DMing a game and I thought I would share something special with you. You seemed to truly enjoy the classic style of D&Ding so I thought I would get you a classic enemy to pit against your players. Yes, your very own pet Beholder. However, unlike a common beholder, this particular beast has been blessed and imbued with dark power. Let me show you:
Here we see the young beholder, set in the sacred shrine. The power circle of the seven true dice is my own, dice which were gifted to me in this very same Secret Santa. The Player’s Handbook, not only an original from the classic 1983 red box, was found deep in the bowels of a true kingdom of nerds. There it was, tucked away on a forgotten shelf in a computer lab at Microsoft Headquarters. Who knows what great minds might have read from its pages, perhaps even Bill himself.
The shrine, being of sufficient weight and power, serves its purpose and summons MItzy, Mother of all Dragons.
For we are here at the present day source of all things D&D, Wizards of the Coast. MItzy swoops in to examine the Beholder. She finds it to be of hearty stock, and sees in it a great future, with many slain PCs left in its wake. When Mitzy learns of the Beholder’s destination, she gives it a special mission. Her dominion does not yet extend to the far reaches of Finland, and this Beholder will be her envoy.
Before sending the Beholder on its way, Mitzy leans in close, and whispers a secret name of great power into the Beholder’s ear.
The beholder will keep it its new dragon-blessed name secret and safe. It can only be revealed to its new Dungeon Master. Even I do not know.
I hope this Beholder will serve you well, and have a fruitful life terrorizing many player characters. As an added bonus, have a bunch of American candy! If you like it, awesome! If not, then I’ve given you the gift of perspective. Now you know yet another thing that us poor Americans must suffer through, and how good you have it in your socialist utopia.
Merry Christmas to you and your Loved Ones,
Whoever linked to that Small World episode of TableTop, thank you for the excellent (accidental) gift. This series is great, and is bolstering the "board games" section of my amazon wish list.
Glad you liked it, @elkatas!
I hope you get a chance to strike terror into the heart of some PCs.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Whoever linked to that Small World episode of TableTop, thank you for the excellent (accidental) gift. This series is great, and is bolstering the "board games" section of my amazon wish list.
I created an Amazon wish list titled "board games" when it first released on YouTube, and I have been adding new games to that wishlist with almost every episode as well as many episodes of ShutUpSitDown. My shelf of board games has overflowed and is now full of great games to force my family to play.
Secret Santa is weird like that. Last year Isy got matched to me. Two uk participants is odd enough, two uk participants 25 minutes from each other is bizarre.
one year i got matched up to someone who lived about 30 minutes away from me, and i dropped off their gift on their porch in a gift bag. i think i scared them somewhat
I sure hope something didn't happen to my Santee. They confirmed that they received my gift over 2 weeks ago, but they haven't posted anything since (in any thread).
Secret Santa is weird like that. Last year Isy got matched to me. Two uk participants is odd enough, two uk participants 25 minutes from each other is bizarre.
one year i got matched up to someone who lived about 30 minutes away from me, and i dropped off their gift on their porch in a gift bag. i think i scared them somewhat
Didn't someone get a trash bag of gifts left on their porch last year?
I sure hope something didn't happen to my Santee. They confirmed that they received my gift over 2 weeks ago, but they haven't posted anything since (in any thread).
Well maybe if you stopped mailing people scorpions on a spring-loaded platform, and if antitoxin wasn't so expensive, I dunno, MAYBE people would post their gifts?!
Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
edited January 2014
Anyway, @ArcSyn, thank you again for your awesomeness!
The scarf has come in extra handy these past few days. I'm not sure how I lived without one of these things before!
The pin is on my nerdy stuff shelf next to my box of every flavor jelly beans, wand collection, and giant d20
I've added fallout to my game queue to play. I've enjoyed the modern ones, so being able to play the into titles in the series will be nice
Haven't had a chance to bust out Small World yet, but it will be bring'd out next game night!
Also your christmas card is on my fridge amongst the ones from family and friends
You're a good santa and a groovy person. If you go to PAX this year, I will give you a beer, or a manly hug. Or maybe both, if you ask nicely.
Or if you don't.
Unfortunately I've yet to make it to a PAX. They seem to always schedule the worst weekends possible and/or sell out before I realize tickets are even for sale. It's definitely on my "Would love to eventually go there someday" list if my schedule and Khoo's will ever align.
I'm glad the scarf is coming in handy! It's in the single digits with a wind chill in the negatives here today so I've been bundling up as well. Crazy cold!
Unfortunately I've yet to make it to a PAX. They seem to always schedule the worst weekends possible and/or sell out before I realize tickets are even for sale. It's definitely on my "Would love to eventually go there someday" list if my schedule and Khoo's will ever align.
I'm glad the scarf is coming in handy! It's in the single digits with a wind chill in the negatives here today so I've been bundling up as well. Crazy cold!
I believe that in recent years the Expo has always fallen on the weekend before and including labor day.
And the tickets go on sale for seventeen seconds as the full moon wanes. Look to the north east for the IP address. 'tis written in the stars.
Once upon a midnight dreary
I looked skyward, cold and weary.
What do I spy but an address in IPv4?
I enter it in to see what it is, but alas, 404
I ate it, probably. Every bit of candy that comes within a few miles of me ends up in my gravitational pull, eventually getting sucked in and consumed. It only makes me stronger, in the end. I can't stop eating candy during this time of year!
I am currently on vacation in Canada, but I just heard from our house sitter that a mysterious package arrived, and apparently both our dogs are very curious about its contents!
The house sitter actually described the package as mysterious...could it be something from a far-flung Santa? I won't even know until the weekend!
So the gold 3DS XL is beautiful, of course. If I wasn't ill, I would take a picture of it next to my gold DS Lite. However, one thing I can do while I'm sick and have pulled a muscle in my back (because it's more fun to have two things wrong at the same time!) is play a lot of handheld games. And the gold XL comes with a download code for Link Between Worlds. I've been wanting to buy this game but had stopped purchasing games for myself during the past few months due to the holidays and SS and being too busy to play anything anyway.
I was going to post this in the 3DS thread but I thought I would post it here since I got it as a gift from @Ketar. I am utterly enchanted by this game. LoZ: A Link to the Past was my favorite Zelda game, and this game is a perfect mix of nostalgia and new for me. I love it.
Ahoy, Christmas friends! It has been Proxy's pleasure assisting in delivering Christmas cheer this (last) year, but it is unfortunately far past Proxy's bed time. Proxy will soon be returning to his cryochamber of cheer! YIPPEE!
So for another year, Proxy will sleep well and look forward to spreading Christmas cheer across the forums once more!
TALLY-HO, MORTALS!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!
Spreading Christmas cheer across the forums since 2009!
Man Santa is slow! It sat in Chicago for like 2 weeks. Hopefully someone enjoyed them, and hopefully your German beer won't destroy those pint glasses too much!
Posts
I finally was able to open my package. And out came a card and many book like objects. I wanted books. Each gift even has a note (included below).
Gifts Inside
#2 - In the season dominated by cinnamon and nutmeg, it may prove enjoyable to get some perspective!
Book on spice history - it even covers the Pope versus Spices!
#3 (Right) - This is, I am assured, a solid lump of History. It has been materialized through deft chronomancy for your edification and enjoyment.
#4 (Left) - This is also a great time of year to remember the important things in life, like never spend any time near Abe Lincoln's son.
It's only fitting that book about Sherman looks like it could be used as a weapon to knock somebody out.
#5 (Right) - A second Vowell for your literary alphabet! Perhaps this will give insight into the holiday traditions of our weird forebears.
#6 (Left) - A good time of year to be thinking warm thoughts.
Once it finally clicked who she was, I
#7 - Wild card!
With the weather this weekend, I can alternate playing 3DS and reading while the 3DS recharges! Awesome!
#8 - I can hardly thirst so much historical wisdom your way without giving you a change to learn what can make a man Truly Great.
It shall sit in a place of honor with by 1950s fiberglass barstools.
To @TheOtherHorseman, thanks for everything!
I took a gamble on that 3DS game, too. I knew you had a 3DS because of the friend code in your signature, but didn't know what games you had since all of your posts are about stupid things like drawing on your personal experiences to help other people instead of useful things like "hello internet strangers here is a comprehensive list of belongings, desires, and mortal fears."
I am thrilled you are happy with the bucket of books!
Also, on a completely different note, while I'm posting in the thread, I might as well say:
I warn you in advance that some of these photos are blurry, because I am a bad person
Behold! Some gifts! There is another wrapped gift that didn't make it into the picture because I tore it open in excitement before I remembered my Festive Duties to you, my fellow gawking gift-givers.
My Santa correctly assumed I would want some comics that fell outside the traditional theme of "a convoluted decades-old soap opera full of people that happen to have superpowers". I am extremely happy with this.
I haven't read it yet, though, because I have been devouring a gift that directly challenges my sexuality, pictured below with the remainder of my shipped gift.
I tore through this book in extremely short order, with a vigor that has not yet been applied to my staggeringly massive miniatures backlog. When that vigor can be applied, however, it will be applied through these well-chosen brushes! My old brushes are ratty and gross, sustained only by my procrastination in replacing them.
Fun fact: This gift was so well-chosen that I later received it again at Christmas with its 2 sequels from my family. Jokes on THEM, though, because it is their copy, unmolested by my fervent gropings, which will be gifted anew to some sap down the line. Your copy will be interred in my Tomb of Awesome Books. It is a shelf-based tomb.
A fantastic gift!
IT INCLUDED MORE, HOWEVER
My Santa also gifted me the Humble Warner Brothers Bundle, which was perfect timing as I had been toying with the notion of buying it when I received the key back in November! It includes such games I didn't own as the F.E.A.R. trilogy, things for the Lord of the Rings MMO, Guardians of Middle Earth with DLC, Gotham City Impostors DLC, and the Mortal Kombat Kollection!
...And so my Santee finally shows himself, along with the gifts I have bestowed upon him!
Glad to know you've enjoyed it all, @TheOtherHorseman .
A teaser for the story: USPS and Canada Post are both jerks.
Before Christmas I got a PM from Proxy the Elf with a code for Dungeon Defenders (with all the DLC too, near as I can tell) and letting me know that a package would be coming after Christmas. Today while I was taking my toddler to the mall to get him out of everyone's hair my husband let me know a package arrived for me, that it was heavy and it was from Berkeley. I want you to know, Santa, that I assumed Berkeley, CA. But I was wrong.
Okay, so I wrangled two of my three cats for the occasion, but as you will see, they give zero fucks about this.
The little book says it includes candies infused with rose water, Indian chilies, Italian espresso...they are too fancy to eat! Almost.
And some caramels (origin unknown), one of which I'm eating right now which is...heavenly, and this hazelnut crunch bar, and rare bird jelly. I had no idea birds had anything you could make jelly out of, probably because it's rare.
The little wrapped package contained a book. The Time Machine, by HG Wells. I didn't get a good picture of it by itself.
The bigger package I sort of squeezed experimentally. Another book, I wondered? Plenty of biggish paperback books out there....
Then I believe my husband can attest that the next words out of my mouth were "HOLY SHIT!"
Holy shit, Santa! Hoooollleeee shit indeed. The thread will not know that I went out on Thanksgiving to try to get one of these from Target when they were on sale-well, three different Targets, and did not manage to get one. At the first Target the employees couldn't get the case open for half an hour and the people in front of me took the last ones...well, anyway. After that I gave up on it because I had Christmas presents to buy for people who were not myself.
Here's a picture of the whole haul, same two cats in the background, not a single fuck being given. I even tried shaking the tissue paper at them. Nope.
So my mind was seriously blown by this, but as I'm trying to regain my mental faculties, I start wondering about the book. See, there's no note in the box. The name on the box is first initial and last name. I wonder...maybe it's a favorite book? Maybe it was on my Goodreads "to read" list? But it wasn't. Then I thought, maybe it's not another gift, maybe it's a message. In the Internet Ancient Times, back in the days of Gonads and Strife and Drudge dancing and taking off every Zig I was a Morlock. themorlocks.com is super defunct now, though you can still see the front page in the Internet Wayback Machine. I flipped through the book and there wasn't a note or anything. So now I'm wracking my brains based on the last name and address to figure out if I know my Santa, or knew him (I admit I'm assuming a "him" based solely on the writing of the address on the box) back in the day. But the thing is, I didn't know EVERYONE's last names. Santa, does Bomberman mean anything to you? Mega Man? Did I ever send you a parcel of meat?
I have also considered the possibility that The Time Machine is just a book, it doesn't mean anything, or maybe it means something else, like maybe the person's forum avatar has something to do with it and my Santa has never heard of Lum the Mad or ever went through a period of time with a kitchen appliance with evil eyebrows for an avatar (I had an EvilStandMixer for a while) and it's just a coincidence or it's just nothing and I'm just seriously overthinking this in which case I'll be quite embarrassed.
Well, either way, thank you SO much, mysterious Santa! This is completely awesome.
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
You guys give better gifts than one of my RL friends. *Imagination glare*
Get this, my group of friends did a belated Christmas rolled together with New Years partying, and we had a white elephant gift exchange. You were expected to spend 25 bucks and get an honest gift that you knew friends in the group would enjoy. After all the numbers were drawn, gifts grabbed, traded and stolen, we all opened our gifts. I was the last to open mine and it was... a plastic bottle opener in the shape of a Luchador, with a price tag still on it for $8. *Failure horns* Turns out I got the one guy that had kinda drifted away from the group a couple years ago, and we only see once or twice a year at this point. Oh well, at least I know I gifted in good faith. Sorry, semi-vent over. I just know that kinda shit wouldn't happen here.
On the other hand, my grandmother's name and address seems to have thrown you off my scent too much. Yes, The Time Machine is a morlocksdotcom reference. Uzma Sharif was my first culinary instructor, and I've liked some of her business posts on Facebook so you could have seen those in your feed at some point; a tiny clue, at any rate.
I had planned on making some things for you, but I waited too long and when I ended up sick the last couple of weeks I had to audible to some local tasty treats. They all have some connection to me though. Uzma taught me how to work with chocolate and made me confident enough that I start pastry school fulltime on Monday. The caramels are salted caramels, passion fruit, and raspberry. They come from Amy's Candy Shop, and I met Amy as a fellow student in another chocolate class I took last year. Rare Bird Preserves are made in my hometown of Oak Park, by a woman who I met through another student in a class I took.
When I do another batch of Kona coffee truffles I'll make sure to send you some though :-)
I'm so glad who you are is all sorted now, because honestly I was probably an hour or so away from cheating and going through the entire list of participants and searching the thread for who had already been outed as Santas for someone else.
Dear thread, yes, as you can see, G&T SS managed to match me with someone whom I already know, and since he put a false name on there (sneaky) he was the first person I thought of and the first person I immediately dismissed. At least I figured out what the book meant!
Seriously though, @Ketar thank you. It's a wonderful gift. I'm kind of speechless about it. And you tell Amy her caramels are amazing.
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
So worth it though.
Are you really curious?
Steam: Chaos Introvert | Twitch.tv: Chaos_Introvert | R*SC: Chaos_Introvert | PSN: testsubject23
Haha! Tell me I've been the victim of a self-proxy Santa scheme!
I've thought about doing that before. Can't believe it didn't occur to me earlier!
I'm a bad and didn't post this when I got it. In addition to several Steam games that were on my wishlist I also received a couple prizes in the mail from my Santa for my daughter (which she has been enjoying)
A wild box appears!
My daughter has a new Sounders FC stuffed monkey and ball (she especially enjoys the monkey hopping around her).
In my defence, all that I did, I did in the name of Santa. Is it not, then, Santa, and not myself, who is truly responsible? Was my deception not for the betterment of Holiday Cheer? History will vindicate me!
Steam: Chaos Introvert | Twitch.tv: Chaos_Introvert | R*SC: Chaos_Introvert | PSN: testsubject23
Here's the missing letter! ^_^
Thank you @Aioua!
I hope you get a chance to strike terror into the heart of some PCs.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I created an Amazon wish list titled "board games" when it first released on YouTube, and I have been adding new games to that wishlist with almost every episode as well as many episodes of ShutUpSitDown. My shelf of board games has overflowed and is now full of great games to force my family to play.
one year i got matched up to someone who lived about 30 minutes away from me, and i dropped off their gift on their porch in a gift bag. i think i scared them somewhat
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Didn't someone get a trash bag of gifts left on their porch last year?
What's this? You thought @deveric was finally done sending me gifts? Look at you. Look at how wrong you are.
A box full of stuff arrives!
..containing three kickass drinking glasses. Woo! (sorry, they're still pretty dusty from being inside that box for two weeks)
DANGEROUS MAN
Thanks again, @deveric , you're the man!
Well maybe if you stopped mailing people scorpions on a spring-loaded platform, and if antitoxin wasn't so expensive, I dunno, MAYBE people would post their gifts?!
The scarf has come in extra handy these past few days. I'm not sure how I lived without one of these things before!
The pin is on my nerdy stuff shelf next to my box of every flavor jelly beans, wand collection, and giant d20
I've added fallout to my game queue to play. I've enjoyed the modern ones, so being able to play the into titles in the series will be nice
Haven't had a chance to bust out Small World yet, but it will be bring'd out next game night!
Also your christmas card is on my fridge amongst the ones from family and friends
You're a good santa and a groovy person. If you go to PAX this year, I will give you a beer, or a manly hug. Or maybe both, if you ask nicely.
Or if you don't.
I'm glad the scarf is coming in handy! It's in the single digits with a wind chill in the negatives here today so I've been bundling up as well. Crazy cold!
My mind fills in the rest of the word here, and it's comedy gold.
You haven't really experienced life until you've seen an original Fallout shotgun crit kill, or a targeted machine gun burst to the groin.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I believe that in recent years the Expo has always fallen on the weekend before and including labor day.
And the tickets go on sale for seventeen seconds as the full moon wanes. Look to the north east for the IP address. 'tis written in the stars.
Once upon a midnight dreary
I looked skyward, cold and weary.
What do I spy but an address in IPv4?
I enter it in to see what it is, but alas, 404
I dunno if it the winter weather is responsible or what.
Also, they make great change jars
The house sitter actually described the package as mysterious...could it be something from a far-flung Santa? I won't even know until the weekend!
I was going to post this in the 3DS thread but I thought I would post it here since I got it as a gift from @Ketar. I am utterly enchanted by this game. LoZ: A Link to the Past was my favorite Zelda game, and this game is a perfect mix of nostalgia and new for me. I love it.
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
So for another year, Proxy will sleep well and look forward to spreading Christmas cheer across the forums once more!
TALLY-HO, MORTALS!
Spreading Christmas cheer across the forums since 2009!
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
Man Santa is slow! It sat in Chicago for like 2 weeks. Hopefully someone enjoyed them, and hopefully your German beer won't destroy those pint glasses too much!