The 12 Days of Christmas

A certain someone or someone's did a really nice thing for me this year. I was in a pretty grumpy mood and pretty depressed. Our family has been through a lot the last couple of years and I was not at all in the Christmas spirit. Then, one morning about 2 weeks ago, Richard opened the front door and found two gift bags sitting on the front porch. He brought them and and said they were for me. I was puzzled and a little curious. Each note had a little card, one said, "the 1st day of Christmas", and of course the other "the 2nd day of Christmas". The first had a silly ornament, a chubby mermaid in in sunglasses and holding a drink. The second gift was 2 pairs of thick fuzzy socks, the kind I like to wear around the house when it gets cold. I had no idea who could have left the gifts, I thought at first my daughter Sara, she swears she had nothing to do with it. The next night, Sara came home and brought in another gift bag, "Mom, this was on the front porch for you." Now I was very curious, who could this secret santa be? The 3rd gift was a large Princess House mug with a package of tea and a tea infuser. Well, now I'm beginning to have a few clues as to who the culprit is, I have a very good friend who happens to be a Princess House rep. Two days later, guess they got busy the previous night, but this would become the pattern now, every other night. This 4th package included, 4 candles and 4 candle holders. Whoever was doing this was really good at sneaking up on us without being caught, especially with someone almost constantly in the front living room. There is a large window in my front living room and right outside is a bench in plain view where most of the gifts were found. One was found just outside the garage, I suspect maybe they were afraid of being seen and dropped it and ran. I was amazed that this person was never caught in the act, they were very sneaky. My "secret stealth santa". The next 2 packages included a 2 liter Dr. Pepper and a hershey's cookies and cream candy bar, okay, now I think there are a couple of people in on this, certain people know I love my Dr. Pepper. Matthew of course also being a Dr. Pepper addict and having a sweet tooth said, "you are going to share, right?" The other gifts that night were a set of 4 books by Karen Kingsbury and a set of planters, as I love plants and gardening. A couple of nights later the next gifts arrived, a tin of cookies, potatoe chips, goldfish, some Peterbrook chocolates...yuuuuum, large box of raisins and an apple. We were beginning to have a lot of laughs over this, and really enjoying the goodies. A couple of nights later and my list of potential suspects grows based on the contents of the bags. A 5 lb bag of sugar, 5lb bag of flour, baking soda, baking powder, walnuts, a bag of chocolate chips, brown sugar and some gardening gloves? I'm thinking they were supposed to be in the bag with the planters. But suffice it to say, I'll be doing some baking very soon. A couple of days later and the final packages arrive, last night I received 4 movies, the book "The Love Dare", if you saw the movie Fireproof, you'd know what that is about, a journal and pen, (I used to journal on a regular basis and mentioned to someone that I'd gotten out of the habit. Along with those items was 4 bags of my favorite popcorn and 4 boxes of assorted chocolates and candies and some Lindor's chocolates. Looks like we're going to have a movie night. I can honestly say whoever was behind this scheme certainly brightened my holidays and brought me a lot of smiles, some laughs and probably a few extra pounds. I tried to get a few friends to fess up, but they all insist they know nothing and that maybe some things just aren't meant to be found out. So, I'll just say how greatful for the blessing of good friends and some wonderful gifts that I will certainly enjoy and share with others. And next year if I know someone who is facing a difficult time and needs a little cheering up, what a great idea this would be. Thank you, whoever you are, for blessing me with your friendship and your gifts. You made this a Christmas to remember.