Internet restored and I now have a moment.

Upon returning home one day, as it happened coming back from the gym as Mrs Ahopkins767 wanted to join with her friend, we found a suspect package on our doorstep. We know the courier, but it's not a courier our suppliers use and therefore not one we'd usually receive from, especially in their own packaging. What was it? We opened it to find more unknown boxes inside and decided to wait until we had got our son from school to open it...but alas, Mrs Ahopkins767 couldn't hold back her excitement and the first box was opened to reveal a lot of candies. Our son later opened the second box to find even more sweets - complete with a lovely note from Santa saying he had most enjoyed all the treats we sent his family last year and was returning them - Version America

Fortunately, the halloween tree is still up at this point, very fitting for the ultimate trick-or-treat box.



Mini ahopkins767 goes to a small school on the edge of civilization, overlooking the majestic Cordillera Mountains (the tallest of which is Mt. Pulag). His class is small - multi-grade and totaling 8. With such a small class, he has taken to sharing "his" culture - or the English side of it anyway - taking in hot chocolate and thermos flasks the week before. We are in the habit of giving Xmas gifts to his classmates, and this year was no exception, except it was timed with Secret Santa - so it was only fitting we share Secret Santa. So the sharable snacks went in, along with the paper planes and letter from Secret Santa and some advent calendars and craft activities on top.


The kids were thrilled with this concept of Advent Calendar (it's a gemstone one since I like geology) complete with snacks in the middle (Thank you S.S). I am told some were left over for the next day, and their favourite the Space Orbs.

Today one of their classmates was leaving (she is moving to America), and I am told they wrote wishes on their paper planes and whoosh - off they went. We can assure you they went very far - how far we have no idea, as they floated off the mountain ledge the school sits on.

So thank you Secret Santa. You made a small class of kids very happy and showed them this "Christmas spirit" they were yet to experience, and perfectly timed. They will remember this for a long time.

And we are enjoying your snacks during our tea breaks, and we are grateful for the lipbalm - it's something mini me uses but we find difficult to find. And those luggage tags will be coming in use sooner than I had anticipated...

Thank you.