2008 Secret Santa: Post Here When You Receive AND Send

[CJ]

I got a call from my mom telling me a package had arrived for me today (I gave Luke her address since that's where I'll be over christmas). I got her to open it to see if there was a card saying it who it was from and:

I'd just like to say thanks CJ! I have no clue what the gift is yet, but thanks! I'll tell you how much I love it when I get to open it.

I'm glad it got there, I was beginning to worry about the package getting lost.

[Luke]

Well, I have twenty people to thank for another extremely generous group gift orchestrated largely by this year's Secret Santa participants. Thursday afternoon was already set to be the second and biggest of four small Christmas celebrations in the cards for me this year. Needless to say, it was made a lot more special by an overnight package that came in the mail.

I received two DVDs I've been craving for some time, the 2-disc editions of <i>Apocalypse Now</i> and the undeservingly-maligned <i>Spider-Man 3</i>. In addition, I got not one but two groovy musical cards (which I now realize <i>are</i> fun outside of stores too), one of which holds a gift card to perhaps my favorite restaurant, Romano's Macaroni Grill. That would have been used quickly, but that it comes just a few days after getting an e-mail to claim my free birthday dessert means it's guaranteed to disappear by the end of January.

As if that wasn't more than enough, there was one other gift that was partly from the UD gang and partly just from the thoughtful Ms. pinkrenata: the Ultimate WALL-E robot. Now this was something that had caught my interest for some time. Seeing the lack of availability and the outrageous prices from Amazon third-party sellers made me think it was out of reach. Apparently, I was wrong! It's pretty much the coolest thing in the world - my very own authentic, interactive WALL-E. I look forward to many hours and many AA batteries being spent with this new pal. Hopefully the cat will warm to him as well.

Many thanks to Aaron and Renata for organizing this and seeing it through and to the other 18 members who contributed to this effort: Amy, CJ, Kelvin, the other Aaron W., Dave, Anne, Guru, Michael, Tabetha, Widdi, Courtney, reyquila, Pluto Region1, drfsupercenter, Jack Skellington, Gurgi30, Jiminy Crick, and magicalwands. I'm touched that these sites and forums mean enough to you guys to want to make my day, season, and year that much more pleasant. It really means a lot, as I devote so many hours (often depriving myself of sleep and fun) to make these sites among those worth visiting. More than anything else I experience running the sites, this gesture reminds me that all that work yields happiness, a community, and respect. It instantly makes me forget all the disappointments that are part of this calling. I'm so proud and thankful for that.

[Disneykid]

Glad you liked the gifts, Luke! It's the least we could do with all the stuff you put up with throughout out the year (*cough*editingmylong-windedreviews*cough*). Be sure to let us know how you and WALL-E get along. Merry Christmas!

[disneyboy20022]

Luke... I am Glad you liked your gifts that the group decided to get you....Let us know If Wall-E turns out to be as annoying as Furby

Now I only hope my assigned Secret Santa got their gift...as I have not heard from them yet

[Disney Lover]

I'm glad you liked your gift Luke!

[drfsupercenter]

You're welcome!

This was my first ever Secret Santa, so I figured... why not make a good first impression?

[Jack Skellington]

Luke, you truly deserve them for maintaining this lovely forum that I only wish I joined years ago. (Funny thing is, I used to always visit the main page, but I never saw the forum until 3 or 4 years later !)

Merry Christmas !

[Escapay]

Dear Secret Santa,

So I woke up around 2:30 today even though I planned on waking up in the morning. I had some banana nut muffins for lunch and then went back to my room, where I surfed the internet for awhile.

Anyway, this got boring quickly so I did some writing for awhile (wrote a miscellaneous chapter for my ongoing novel which I'll never be fully satisfied with) and then got ready for church, as we've been going to Saturday masses for the past 15 years or so instead of Sunday masses. Before leaving for church, we had a hard time opening our mailbox, as the rain from yesterday froze overnight, and so we had to use several things to try and get it open.

There wasn't anything interesting in the mailbox that day. A credit card bill (ouch), a memory stick that Kram ordered, and a couple flyers. So we put them in the car. However, if anyone remembers Secret Santa 2006, we saw something that looked like an old piece of wood that seemed to have gotten onto our porch.

So I went over to retrieve it, and again, just like Secret Santa 2006, it wasn't a piece of wood, but a package! With a lot of tape! And "Amazon" crossed out with black markers! I went in the car and we went off to church. The box said "Open with Care!" And I tried, I really did. I didn't have a box cutter with me (because why would I carry a box cutter to church?), so I used one of my reliable Walt Disney Resorts pens.

And when I opened it, there was a wad of wrapping paper that came out, along with a Lady and the Tramp: 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition pin.

I opened an envelope inside, and loved the card (which had Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto holding Christmas gifts). Inside was a wonderful and long handwritten note by you, Secret Santa a.k.a. Aaron Wallace. I was very touched by what you said, and am grateful to have been your Secret Cindy Lou Who this year. Don't worry, your handwriting is better than mine! The rest of the New Jersey Trilogy say "Hi!" back!

Sheesh, all this and I didn't even get to the actual gifts! I think the best way to thank you for them would be in a song...

Thank you for being a Secret Santa
Looking all over for Donald and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidante
Thank you for being a Secret Santa

And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you knew
You would see the worst handwriting was from me
In a card attached that'd say
Thank you for being a Secret Santa

(horrible lyrics, I know!)

So thank you SO MUCH for "The Golden Girls" Seasons Six and Seven and for Amy Grant: Greatest Hits and Amy Grant: The Christmas Collection! Without even unwrapping them, I knew that the CDs would be Amy Grant! They'll definitely go on rotation in my CDs-for-the-Car collection (which is actually smaller than I'd like, only about 15 CDs).

BTW, wise choice with the wrapping paper. Frosty the Snowman is already and awesome choice, but the latter really got a chuckle out of me. If I had to be burdened with High School Musical on my wrapping paper, I'm glad you made sure it was Ryan and Sharpay Evans!

Your Secret Cindy Lou Who,
Albert "Escapay" Gutierrez

[Mason_Ireton]

To my secrect santa, greatly appericated the gift, totaly didn't expect it at all, aboustly loved it, again thanks for takin the time.


As for me, I sent my mine alil late due to makin $ at Disney World, so the gift will arrive alil late.

[Just Myself]

To my secrect santa, greatly appericated the gift, totaly didn't expect it at all, aboustly loved it, again thanks for takin the time.

Mason, who was your Secret Santa? What did they get you? Gotta give us details man, lol!

Here is Dave's list of senders and receipients from page 6:

The Famous UD Secret Santa Sent/Recieved Matrix

Anne sent to dvdjunkie and received from Widdi
AwallaceUNC sent to Escapay and received from ???
blackcauldron85 sent to Jessica and received from Gurgi30
CJ sent to Widdi and received from magicalwands
crunkcourt sent to DaveWadding and received from drfsupercenter
DaveWadding sent to Julian Carter and received from crunkcourt
Disney Lover sent to pinkrenata and received from MickeyMouseboy
disneyboy20022 sent to Mason_Ireton and received from Just Myself
disneyfella sent to reyquila and received from Jack Skellington
Disneykid sent to Gurgi30 and received from PixarFan2006
Dottie sent to magicalwands and received from Escapay
drfsupercenter sent to crunkcourt and received from pinkrenata
dvdjunkie sent to Jiminy Crick91 and received from Anne
Escapay sent to Dottie and received from AwallaceUNC
Gurgi30 sent to blackcauldron85 and received from Disneykid
Jack Skellington sent to disneyfella and received from MickeyMousePal
Jessica sent to MickeyMousePal and received from blackcauldron85
JiminyCrick91 sent to MickeyMouseboy and received from dvdjunkie
Julian Carter sent to PixarFan2006 and received from DaveWadding
Just Myself sent to disneyboy20022 and received from PeterPanfan
magicalwands sent to CJ and received from Dottie
Mason_Ireton sent to ??? and received from disneyboy20022
MickeyMouseboy sent to Disney Lover and received from JiminyCrick91
MickeyMousePal sent to Jack Skellington and received from Jessica
PeterPanfan sent to Just Myself and received from reyquila
pinkrenata sent to drfsupercenter and received from Disney Lover
PixarFan2006 sent to Disneykid and received from Julian Carter
reyquila sent to PeterPanfan and received from disneyfella
Widdi sent to Anne and received from CJ

Cheers,
JM

[Escapay]

By process of elimination and the Gift Matrix, it's either disneyboy20022, Disneykid, Gurgi30, PeterPanfan, or Widdi.

ETA: Never mind, Just Himself posted the list again.

albert

[disneyboy20022]

To my secrect santa, greatly appericated the gift, totaly didn't expect it at all, aboustly loved it, again thanks for takin the time.

Mason, who was your Secret Santa? What did they get you? Gotta give us details man, lol!

Cheers,
JM

I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.....

Okay since Mason is probably as Escapay put it in a differ saying than I am about too...

Mason probably didn't say who his Secret Santa is or what the gift was because he was

A: totally shocked that what the gift was because it was so rare he thought no way in a million years... he would get that...

B: Too Exhausted from the Walt Disney World College/Student Program didn't finish his post...

pr

C: both a combo of A and B


the answer is C...you see I know that it was delivered to him about last Saturday...because I put the d/c tracking number that way...so I could track it....


and I am going to guess that he got Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White volume one sealed in a tin...not a bootleg because it was luckily a leftover from the Disney Movie Club....when his Secret Santa ordered it he at first got Annette WDT from Best Buy...then luckily Mason posted before I sent that he had already found Annette....so I returned it and while the person at DMC on the phone said it wasn't available...the automated computer said it was....and that is Volume one..so his secret Santa ordered it...and to the secret santa's shock it went through...that's why his secret Santa had it delivered to his/her address before they sent it out.....to make sure it was in Fact Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 1 and not something else...then his secret santa ended up in the hospital but got out in time to Mail it Wednesday....

But who Mason's Secret Santa is: I'll leave Mason to say that...though the post that I listed gives you many hints into who Mason's Secret Santa is/was for 2008...if you have not figured it out after this....re-read this post 10 times until it sinks in or wait until Mason posts himself

[blackcauldron85]

Yesterday, I came home from the dog park and got the mail. I didn't see a Secret Santa present, and so I brought the mail inside. Bobby said, "Amy, didn't you miss something?" Lo and behold, there were 2 packages hidden by our wonderful mailman. I checked to see who they were for, and they were both for me. One was my order from Amazon, BUT one was my Secret Santa package!!!!!!!

Thank you sooooo much, Jim (aka Gurgi30!) for the Camp Rock DVD, Snow White pin, and CORBIN BLEU NOTEBOOK! What was probably the cheapest of all the items was unexpected and awesome (but all 3 gifts are definitely awesome!)! Not only that, Bobby & I exchanged presents yesterday, since were going back to Massachusetts on Tuesday for Christmas, and he got me a HSM3 pen with Corbin on it (and only Corbin- Zac, take that!...unless Zac is on the other side of the pen...I didn't take it out of the package yet...hmm...) and it sings "The Boys Are Back". I can write in my Corbin notebook with my Corbin pen. That boggles my mind. Not only that, the pictures are eerily similar- on both, he's wearing a yellow shirt while holding a basketball in pretty much the same position. I can tell by his hair that the notebook picture is probably from HSM2, and the pen picture is from HSM3...)

Once again, thank you, Jim, and Merry Christmas!!!

And, I'm so glad you like your gifts, Luke! You deserve them! Merry Christmas to you, too!

And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

[reyquila]

Luke, thank you for your devotion to this site!!! Your patience and dedication are admirable!! Merry Christmas and I hope for 2009 to be the best year for you!!!

[AwallaceUNC]

Glad you got the gift, Scaps! Have fun with the Golden gang and I hope you enjoy the two CDs!

Glad you got your gift too, Luke! As everyone else has said, you definitely deserve it!

Merry Christmas!

-Aaron

[Gurgi30]

Yesterday, I came home from the dog park and got the mail. I didn't see a Secret Santa present, and so I brought the mail inside. Bobby said, "Amy, didn't you miss something?" Lo and behold, there were 2 packages hidden by our wonderful mailman. I checked to see who they were for, and they were both for me. One was my order from Amazon, BUT one was my Secret Santa package!!!!!!!

Thank you sooooo much, Jim (aka Gurgi30!) for the Camp Rock DVD, Snow White pin, and CORBIN BLEU NOTEBOOK! What was probably the cheapest of all the items was unexpected and awesome (but all 3 gifts are definitely awesome!)! Not only that, Bobby & I exchanged presents yesterday, since were going back to Massachusetts on Tuesday for Christmas, and he got me a HSM3 pen with Corbin on it (and only Corbin- Zac, take that!...unless Zac is on the other side of the pen...I didn't take it out of the package yet...hmm...) and it sings "The Boys Are Back". I can write in my Corbin notebook with my Corbin pen. That boggles my mind. Not only that, the pictures are eerily similar- on both, he's wearing a yellow shirt while holding a basketball in pretty much the same position. I can tell by his hair that the notebook picture is probably from HSM2, and the pen picture is from HSM3...)

Once again, thank you, Jim, and Merry Christmas!!!

And, I'm so glad you like your gifts, Luke! You deserve them! Merry Christmas to you, too!

And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

I'm glad you liked everything Amy and that everything got to you on time. I had to get back to Target to get that notebook before I sent it out and I ended up getting the last one. There were a bunch of Zac left but only one Corbin.

Still no surprise on my end though.

Luke, Merry Christmas and thank you for putting together a quality site.

[Widdi]

I'm getting worried, I've had no word yet that the gift I sent arrived at its destination yet. I think I may call the post office today.

[Mason_Ireton]

I luckly recieved my gift a week ago, didn't open it nor did I bother to read current posts made this thread, I shall await my present and open it x-mas day.

[JiminyCrick91]

I luckly recieved my gift a week ago, didn't open it nor did I bother to read current posts made this thread, I shall await my present and open it x-mas day.

That explans the lack of info on your gift. Well, nice to know your not just keeping it all to yourself.

-Sky

[AwallaceUNC]

To my secrect santa, greatly appericated the gift, totaly didn't expect it at all, aboustly loved it, again thanks for takin the time

I luckly recieved my gift a week ago, didn't open it nor did I bother to read current posts made this thread, I shall await my present and open it x-mas day.

I thought you already opened it?

-Aaron