Dark Blue

Merry Christmas!

I just opened the one package which was delivered the other day. The package label says Florida, but I am confused with the contents written in (looks like) Hebrew...? I don't see any English descriptions (apart from Splendid), but chocolates for sure. And the two packs of Supervizor XT (escape tool) suggest something bad happening to me...?

CREN

Merry Christmas everyone!

I opened my gifts this morning and thank you to my three Secret Santas! Sadly it's not letting me upload my photos onto here saying it's missing tokens as an error upload.


For two years in-a-row Lisabeth was my Secret Santa and I was very fortunate this time around to get a special glow in the dark Sand Art from her.

I also received from LadyWrites one of my favorite bourbons and lovely hand blown glasses from Mexico that will surely be tested out with the Makers Mark

And lastly, I received a Bonsai Tree from the Bonsai Boy again. It is sitting next to the former one in my kitchen and the old one looks just as good as the new one. Thank you all to my Secret Santas and if I can fix my upload errors, I'll be sure to post the pictures on here.

offerendum

The brown/ blue one is like Halva

wharvey

Dear Santas,

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season or whatever holiday you may be celebrating this year.

It is quiet here, just me and the two kitties. The hubby is in Colombia visiting his family for two weeks.

Few things:

1. I sincerely apologize for those of you who have still not received your gift(s) this year. I have done all I can to get people to ship according to their commitments. Of course, some things have been out of their control. I am still working to get your gifts shipped but some people are choosing to not respond to my messages even though I can see that they have read my numerous private messages.

2. For those of you who have not responded to me via Private Message, please do so immediately to let me know the specifics on what gifts you received so I can make sure your Santa gets credit in my files. This is important as I will begin suspending members next week who can not prove to me they met their commitments. As indicated in your assignment message, posting in this thread is not sufficient - you must send me a message.

3. I have received a few complaints from people not happy that they got a repeat Santa. Understand, I have run this event for 19 years. There is no way possible for me to keep track of every single person you have been assigned over the years. It is daunting when you consider some of you have had over 100 santas over the years. I do my best but I can never guarantee no repeats.

4. I have also received a few complaints about dissatisfaction with gifts received. First, as I have always done, I forward any messages I get about gifts to the person that sent the gifts. I should not have to say this, but I have absolutely no control over what people choose to send you as a gift. While I wish that people would research their assignment and take care in deciding what to send out, I have no control over it.

5. Overall, the feedback is positive on this event. I have vacillated over the years on whether to continue this event each year. I start file prep in August and usually do not close out the event until late January. Every year, it is a six month event. I actually had one year where the final gift was not delivered until July. I remember it because it was a gift for me. After that, I chose to not participate in the gift exchange personally. I spend so much time on trying to make this a memorable event for everyone else that I did not want to take time to research a single gift or two.

For anyone who is unhappy with this experience, I suggest that you choose to not participate again. Again, my apologies for things within my control...

William

nancypants

I forgot about this box of yummy Eastern European treats- the wafers are already basically gone and I will start working my way through the rest over the coming days- we were up all night at work so some of the chocolates have been distributed to my amazing colleagues


re outstanding gifts
darkblue- yours from Australia has finally left the country, I have a second back up item coming to you from within the UK. Hopefully they will both arrived very shortly
canforce- one half of yours now seems to be stuck with Canada post in Vancouver, the second continues to wait in Sydney. I am glad you managed to collect the extra prints I ordered here- hopefully once everything is there it will make a nice addition to your bar
kauppias- there should be a set of whiskey glasses coming from the UK, I am unsure if they have arrived yet. Hopefully the watches were an unusual addition to the collection, I have been eyeing one of them off for myself for several weeks
try2keepup the returned 2nd half of yours is now here with me and I will get it sent across ASAP
tdnpf- I am still waiting for the damaged item to get back to me and the 2nd half of your gift is unfortunately stuck in the Sydney backlog, there should be a hamper coming from within Europe in the next few days as an interim measure

I apologise for the tardiness of my gifts arriving. Even last year australia post managed to get everything moving as long as it was gone by mid December. This year I was 2 weeks ahead of last posting (which is meant to more or less guarantee receipt by Christmas) but for whatever logistical reason of theirs it just hasn’t worked out

wharvey, thanks for organising, I have enjoyed participating this year as well as last. Sorry for the extra headache this time!

joshua362

Many thanks to SnowCrash51295 who sent a great kids book and some Hawaiian treats. Much appreciated!

nancypants

Forgot to mention the christmas crackers/bonbons which went down very well with the nuns

Lisabeth

Merry Christmas!

I opened a lovely box from CANFORCE chalked full of goodies from his home town/country: Pure Canadian Maple Syrup ( yum), Ultimate Maple Creme Cookies ( double yum), Lavender and Vanilla shampoo and Body Wash ( guaranteed to make my hair smell awesome), Lavender and Rosemary candle ( wonderful scent) and a perfectly sized necklace for work and personal outings! I appreciate the time and effort of gathering these goodies and including the local business cards/contacts to contact for additional goodies!
We will be enjoying these goodies for a long time! Thank you- Lisabeth



A cornucopia of Canadian Goodies!

samaryatim

Merry Christmas, Flyertalk friends.

So very appreciative for the gifts from Secret Santas that I opened late last night:

· Arbonne lavender gift set from TokyoFoodie

· Lavender body goodies from Bath and Body Works from a Flyertalk member in CA

· Ahava lavender mineral bath salt from a Flyertalk member in HI

· Colorful Mexican pottery (lead free! – this public health professional appreciates that!)) – butter dish and napkin holder

All these gifts will bring me ongoing happiness and stress-relief throughout the year. THANK YOU.

FWIW – I so very much appreciate Wharvey’s efforts on behalf of Flyertalk. I’m sure I’m not alone in that these reciprocal gifts make the difference in my holiday. So. Very. Appreciated!!!!!!

Continued wishes to all for JOY and HEALTH during this holiday season and into the new year.

navi_jen

Okay, here goes (in several posts).

Thank you to Redhead for a beautiful silver necklace and toys for Pumpkin (a Kong frisbee, a Gumby toy and a Chukker...which one cannot have too many of!)

Dog not included


Thank you to Runner123 for several wonderful books and a beautiful clay holiday cookie platter? Or cookie mould?


Hmm...is there something there for me?

navi_jen

Thank you to SDQBound for even more reading materials (perfect for gray OH winters) and a Talking Heads CD.



Many many laughs and thanks to jsds for more books and 2 kongs for Pumpkin. I literally could not put the box under the tree because he kept pawing it!

I will find Pumpkin gifts. The nose always knows!


Love my Kongs

navi_jen

And, thank you to my mystery Santa, who I believe
a) lives about 2 hours West of me
and
b) Sent me Linens (much needed!), Bose Headphone earcovers and a new Bose Case.




And, if for ANY reason I mixed up gifts and giftees, I apologize. Trying to move, unpack, decorate for Christmas, prepare my house for the family overnight onslaught and keep all my SS gifts organized was quite a task over the last 4 weeks. Thank you to all my SS and wharvey for making a hard Christmas (the first without my Dad) much more jolly!

Runner123

Navi_jen, it is a shortbread mold. I have one myself. A) I think they are beautiful, B) the shortbread comes out perfectly and looks gorgeous without having to decorate, and C) (most important) it saves time because you just pat the shortbread in the mold rather than cutting it out with cookie cutters. The Fannie Farmer Baking cookbok has several excellent recipes. Also, shortbread lasts a long time!

navi_jen

OMG....I love shortbread. And I have that cookbook. I see shortbread fairies dancing in my head (and on my plate, once I'm done eating the remaining holiday treats). Thankyouthankyou...you know your SS well

SDQBound

Glad you liked all the presents. For some reason, Amazon failed to include the note in the Bose case and ear covers, but they came from me as well!