Surprise!!...the grand opening (Part 1)

I am afraid this post was due to have lovely snaps of people opening presents but I have failed to copy them to the correct computer so just for today, due to the success of the previous one, here is another cute kitten...ah.

It feels like so long since I started this and it seems a little sad that it has to come to an end but it must. We have had the early Christmas party (we were not going to be able to be together as a family on Dec 25th so decided to have a great big party before we all head off to our respective retreats) and the presents have been distributed.

Before I get into what was in all of my parcels I'd like to thank my gifter (to continue the lame naming convention I started with "giftee"!) for my goodies...I received a number of running / fitness / recovery products to help improve my performance but more importantly to soothe my bones in the hours and days afterwards!!

There were a number of other imaginative / thoughtful gifts for the rest of the family including some materials for a reluctant artist...look forward to seeing the results some day?

OK, to the list. I am please to announce that currently I have received 32 gifts (and have the promise of 4 outstanding...it's not too late to get them here!!) and the the lucky recipient is my little sister, Lucy. In a strange twist of fate I think (although cannot be too sure) that I may have recognised her handwriting on the tag to my gift.

In order to keep these posts to a manageable length and to give due space to the top presents I'll go through the first 10 gifts now with more to come.

Perhaps the most important present was also the first I received, from a lovely woman called Emma at Lego. Her simple reply to my note was,

"You have made me laugh, go on. What is your address."

Without that reply so soon after sending out my first batch of notes I might have given up on what seemed like quite a cool if a little random idea. In the package was a cool Lego Duplo plane which will be given to one of Lucy's friends little boy.

Also amongst the first few gifts were teabags from Twinings...and if you look back at the post you can get some too, some vouchers and pens from Hovis, post-it notes and pencils from Weetabix and another pencil from the Independent newspaper (which thrilled a certain crossword puzzler in the family, sometimes it's the little things!)

Both of the mystery presents were solved I can tell you in this post about the first...it was from Boots who cunningly tied their gift into the 3 for 2 offer they are running for Christmas and to make up for not mentioning it that much when the parcel arrived here is the link to all the info - Christmas @ Boots!! BTW it was a set of nail varnish!!...good job the present was for a woman!

Which brings me nicely on to Mr & Mrs Smith who were the only people to ask anything about the person I was giving the gifts to...Aline - gold star for you guys! And for this extra little bit of effort you reaped huge rewards, Lucy loved the CD (get your copy and romance someone here) and I am def looking forward to staying in your places again very soon (I had an amazing first anniversary thanks to our finding your website.)

Rounding out the first ten was a cool poster from Berghaus and some signed Michael Phelps goodies from speedo...mum and aunt were quite taken by the cute swimmer although they'd never admit it!!

To be honest I would have been overjoyed to have given just these gifts to my sister but there is more, much more, to come...