Reddit Secret Santa 2018 - My Giftee

Last week I posted about signing up for Reddit's Secret Santa exchange 2018.  The same day that post went up, I was assigned my match, AKA "Giftee".

Since I elected to be open for any exchange, including international, that day I was pleased to find out the receiver of my Secret Santa gift is from Sweden.  Though I was less pleased when I realized what I wanted to send was likely going to cost me $25-30 just in postage alone.  Whomp-whomp.

Don't lie.  You totally just said that in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.  I know it!!  Too bad he's Austrian and my giftee is Swiss - that gif was almost 100% on point.  Heh.

Anyway!  My giftee is a Swiss man in his 50s, married with three teen kids, is a web developer of some sort, and is into Marvel comic characters, Walking Dead, and musical choices such as Michael Buble and Nat King Cole.

Me:

I connect with basically none of this.  Which to be fair, I knew would be part of the challenge (and fun) of doing a Reddit swap.  I fully expected my partner to be into Sci-fi, super hero, science type stuff that I know NOTHING about.  So the challenge of this Secret Santa for me was always to find some common grounds between myself and them ... and then gift accordingly.

Oh!  Also of note, my giftee lost his eye awhile back due to health issues, and is currently dealing with a cancer diagnosis.  This will become more relevant later.

With my challenge fully in hand, my job as an internet stalker commenced.  Reddit assisted somewhat in this by allowing me access to my giftee's profile (portions which in other instances are left hidden on the site).  Reviewing this information allowed me limited access to my giftee's Facebook and Twitter pages.  Between those bits, and the general information provided via the Secret Santa survey itself, I started to formulate some ideas.  Most of which stemmed from a post in one of his profiles where Al Franken was compared to Dustin from Stranger things:

Well ... thanks for the Minnesota inspiration, giftee!  Times two, in fact!!  (I bet he didn't even realize the Minnesota connection to Dustin in that comparison, BTW).  Minnesota ... Minnesota ... how do I find this guy a fun gift that isn't just typical tourist tripe?

Well, first off, I knew one thing I wanted to do right away.  I figured, if he's even A LITTLE bit of a Stranger Things fan, at least that I can relate to.  Plus, he referenced a famous Swedish physicist in his "celebrities I like" question slot, and he noted he personally supports endowments to various charities ... so adding this all together, I decided to take a chance and purchase an authentic Science Museum of Minnesota "Thunder Lizard" t-shirt.

This was somewhat of a win/win, as it finally broke me after a year of procrastinating to buy myself a thunder lizard hoodie as well.  I figured that since proceeds in 2017 helped fund a van purchase for traveling science education, I could spare the $30 for my own hoodie and contribute to the cause.

Gift portion A - check.  Thunder Lizard T:

Knowing how extra I am, you can bet that I didn't just want to send a t-shirt and be done with this thing.  Once I knew I wanted to do the thunder lizard shirt, more brainstorming about unique Minnesota things commenced.

I think the purple in the shirt may have swayed me just at tad into this connection.

Duh - Paisley Park is practically within walking distance of my house.  Since my giftee is into jazzier singers, and most of Prince's later works were in that spectrum, why not include something Prince related?!

Gift portion B - check.  My very own hot glued combo of two Christmas ornaments from Patina:

The last thing I wanted to send ... I have to admit, I didn't want my giftee to take it the wrong way.  But knowing a sense of humor can work wonders on someone with medical setbacks, I decided to use a friend of mine as an example and followed her lead.  Since she also had severe eye issues and cancer, and I knew she had a great sense of humor about being a pirate and wearing an eye patch, I decided to select my giftee a novelty eyepatch ... you know, for the days he might be feeling a little Walking Dead-ish:

Gift portion C - check.  I think that means I'm done!

Net result - someone in Sweden is about to get a whole lotta Minnesota inspired awesomeness.  Hopefully the recipient agrees.

  

And now ... it's in the hands of international postage and customs.  Fingers crossed!!

Reddit Secret Santa 2018

Years and years ago, well before running and working out to improve my health ever passed my consciousness and I founded this blog, I used to be a huge user of SWAP-BOT.com.

It's been ages since I've used the site so I have no idea how much has changed, but back when I was still a user, SWAP-BOT was sort of like playing Secret Santa year round.  There were various "swaps" you could sign up for, with various themes, and often times they were centered around making part or all of your sent gift by hand.

More often than not, I would chose to make my gift recipient something on my sewing machine:

Sometimes, depending on the theme of the swap, I would add other little trinkets into the mix as well:

After losing my job during the "Great Recession" (as I guess it's now called, no matter how corny that name is), the cost of postage forced me out of the SWAP-BOT game.  And then after I started working again, with my change in lifestyle in full force, my free spending money ended up going towards my ever growing list of race registrations.

So ended the era of Shinianen on SWAP-BOT.

I think I just heard a sad clown whistle somewhere.  Heh.


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Anyway, of all things, you'll never guess who spurred me to get back into swapping of sorts ...

It's true.  Thanks for the inspiration, Pee Wee!!

A little back story: some of you may be familiar with Reddit or the Reddit Secret Santa exchange.  If you are (or aren't), the exchange has gained infamy in the last few years thanks to such celebrity participants as Bill Gates, Snoop Dogg, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger (who - true story - drew the recipient a portrait of her cat LOL!!!)

Now I'm NOT expecting to get a celebrity match ... just on odds alone, with over 100,000 people registered at the moment I'm typing this, it's highly unlikely I will be receiving or giving to any known celebrity.  Not to say it couldn't happen, or wouldn't be TOTALLY COOL if I did.

But the realist in me knows I'll likely match to an average person, out to have some fun gifting for someone, just like me.  And that's just what I am looking forward to.  A little anonymous spreading of cheer ... plus a bit of excited anticipation on what I might end up with as well.

So on that note, I will end today's post.  More updates to follow on what I send and receive.  In the meantime, in case my Reddit partner happens across this post, here's a few handy links to learn more about me:

40 Questions 2016
The ABCs of Me
I'm Blowin' Sunshine (about me posts from early 2014): #1, #2, and #3
I'm a BE-liebster (about me posts from late 2014): #1, #2, and #3

A Little Before and After

I've been putting off the below post now for almost two months.

It's only due to superficial reasons, really.  For weeks, I kept hoping that this dreary fall weather would pass, and the sun would finally pop free and give me some good natural light.  But alas, no dice.  Fall has come and gone, and here in Minnesota we've officially had our first snow that "stuck".  So while there's no giant piles of snow on the ground (yet), the cold and dreary weather is likely here to stay.

I suppose that long winded paragraph above is basically me saying: excuse the poor lighting in the photos below.  But to quote Freddie Mercury "the show must go on!"

Or something like that.

Anyway, since I touched on the cosmetic updates we did on our new house in my "I'm back" post from September, I thought it might be fun to share a few before and after pics today.  (Before photos come from MLS, just FYI).

Take a look at the below and let me know what ya think ... I mean, HGTV eat your heart out, right?!?!

PS - you may notice some of the furnishings look familiar.  We agreed to purchase several of the previous owners furnishings to help us get started, and to help ease their move out.  It was win/win.


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Since I already posted these last time, let's start with the basement stuff.  Besides, it is kind of fun just to see what a difference wall color can make...


Basement

Before




After
(I didn't bother taking a new pic with furnishings, you get the point with this anyway)





Main Living

Before



After
(Ignore the still un-homed, move in clutter in the lower left corner)

Formal Living 

Before



After
(Looks a little more like a house I'd live in, no?)

Front Foyer

Before



After
(Ugh, don't even get me started on what a PITA getting that light fixture swapped out was!)

Kitchen

Before


After
(Again another fun demonstration what a difference modern paint colors can make.)

Guest Bedroom

Before



After
(FYI the "before" bedroom is actually a different room, we just stole that bed and moved it into a room down the hall to furnish our guest suite.  I picked this picture combination because I wanted to show what a difference paint and bedding can make even on pre-existing furniture.)

Guest Bathroom

Before

 

After





Well, that's all I got!  And to be honest, I'm in a hurry to get going so I can finally go see that Queen movie that's out (if you couldn't tell based on my GIF selections above).

As for the rest of my house pictures, well ... I don't want to go putting photos of my entire house up on the internets, so if you want the full tour ya gotta come visit.  As you can see, I've got a room waiting for ya!

Halloween 2018

Sadness.

*deep sigh*

Halloween is over.  Whatever will I do until next year?

Um, duh ... we all know I'm already working on Halloween 2019.  LOL!

I mean, first of all, it's OFFICIALLY the best time of year now:  Halloween clearance shopping!!  And second of all, now that I have boo baskets and teachers gifts like these in the mix, I have even more fun stuff to plan for.

But next year's planning aside, I suppose I should recap Halloween 2018.  Because you know for me that meant multiple costumes, treats galore, and family ensembles as well!

So ... let's go!!


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First up - sending my son off.

Being a kid with an extra mom does have it's bonuses.  To be fair - the bonuses right now are mostly in favor of my son's teachers. But, there's also a little bit in it for him.  I mean, what other kid do you know that gets three Halloween costume changes each year?  (Footnote: as you can tell, I try to select "costumes" that can be multi purpose.  Clearly my son can wear the below t-shirts again any time, one hat will be his outdoor head covering for the next month or two until we hit the real MN winter, and the other hat has actually been a part of his dress up box already for over 6 months.)

Costume A: This year my son was a robot for his Friday before Halloween "school" party.  His costume consisted of a hat and shirt off Amazon, and a pair of gray sweatpants:

 

Costume B: For actual day of Halloween, my son wore a shark hat off Etsy, another shirt off Amazon, and yet again a pair of tried and true gray sweatpants:

 

Costume C ... well, more on that later.

As for the teachers - you know I try when possible to avoid candies at Halloween.  I figure since everyone ends up saturated with junk food from now through New Years, it's nice to NOT have food presented to you during this time of year.  So, when I can be creative with alternative gifts, I do.

This year, I ended up stumbling across a special deal on black sequined clutches and pumpkin headbands.  I also had a surplus of car wash coupons to the gas station nearby.  Throwing those three things all together, I think it made for a fun little gift:

Gifts in hand and shark on head, my son merrily strode into class Halloween morning.  He loves giving people presents, so he was happy ... even if the shark hat took a little convincing on my end.  #terribletwos


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Next - my costumes.

For the day at the office, I ended up taking a page from last year's play book; I defaulted to Tipsy Elves again.  Though they somewhat burned me last year on pricing and stupid customer service behavior, when I saw their pinata costume, new for 2018, I just couldn't say no.

Lucky for me, Tipsy Elves screwed up when they first listed the pinata and only put it at $65 - like all their other dresses.  With a quick "new customer" coupon code, I had that thing in my pocket with shipping included ... and then, they bumped it up to $99.  Hahaha, suckers.

After getting my dress in the mail, I spent ages trying to figure out a candy dispensing contraption to go along with my newly acquired pinata, so I could just casually drop candy as I walked around on Halloween.  But alas, I just never came up with a good concept.  In the end, I settled for a bulk bag of Fleet Farm fruit tootsies, and utilized the built in zippered pockets on the dress.

On Halloween proper, I wore the dress to work with basic black leggings and black sequined Chucks.  When anyone complemented me on my costume, I simply threw handfuls of fruit tootsies at them.  It was an oddly ... rewarding experience.

And despite getting whacked with candy, everyone just laughed and laughed.  Better yet, almost every single adult ran around like little kids scrambling to pickup the candy!!

At one point in the day, a coworker even "beat" me with a broom.  Heh.

Later that day, I came home from work and changed into my $1, 90% off 2017 Halloween clearance jacket from Target.  Yes, yes - one costume on Halloween just doesn't cut it for me. Say what you will.

Interjection - no lie - when I moved into my new house, I ended up dedicating an entire guest bedroom closet to Halloween costumes.  Ooops.

Since it was almost time for the main event, this time my son and husband got in on the game with me.  Both of them took to wearing Target's season past, family sized lion union suits (of course now that they're so old, google only yields the female version, but you get the concept).

A lion tamer their lions.  LOL!

At 6 pm on the dot, my son lead the way on his first official night of Trick-Or-Treat.  He had a blast, even if we only let him hit up about a dozen or so houses.  Honestly, though ... how much candy does a two year old really need?

Besides, we had to be home to give out our bounty, too.

Yep!  I found a resource for a 60 piece bulk purchase of miscellaneous beanie boos, and handed them out to kids who rang my bell (in addition to candy, for kids who preferred those). 

My favorite moments of handing out included a little boy choosing the blue fish shown above, running down the block screaming "I GOT A DORY!!!!!!", and this:

I cry, I die, OH MY!  How sweet is that?!

The toys seemed to be a hit with most of the kids, as is evidence to the photos shared on our neighborhood's group chat the next day:

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And ... well ... I guess that's it.  That was Halloween 2018.

Now I surf the clearance sales, start my scheming, and attempt to make 2019 equally as awesome.  Though with the beanie boos this year, I may have a hard time doing that.

Happy late fall, everybody!