I love my Secret Santa!

Over in Mudcat Forum for the last three years, I've taken part in the Secret Santa game, where each of us gives a gift to one other "Mudcatter," with a price limit of $20 American.

The woman I got as a "Santee" this year, has recently opened a new restaurant that hosts a weekly "song circle" where people gather to share and learn folksongs. So I wrote and illustrated a fairy tale for her about a king that forbids his subjects to sing within his hearing, and how he learns to abandon that foolishness. I had Kinkos print it and bind it for me, and send it FedEx...

This person posted to the forum the package arrived just in time for her to read the story to her sick daughter... and she said it was possibly the best present she's ever gotten... :-).

Yes, this Yule elf is happy. Mission accomplished!

I opened my Secret Santa pressie today, because it was clearly marked as being from the Solstice Faery... Inside the big pack were several smaller packages. One, covered over in bubble wrap, to hide the label, was a bag of chocolate truffles -- yummy!! A second one, wrapped in deep purple tissue paper, contained a pair of beautiful red candles, painted with spirals and other designs -- definitely too beautiful to burn!! A third package contained a beautiful ceramic pin (broach) with a viking-age like design of a rider on horse. It almost makes me want to get dressed up, so I can have an excuse to wear it in public. Then, there was a cd-rom with my Santa singing four of her songs (She's a professional musician), and she has a lovely, deep voice.

But the last inner package was the biggest of all: I tore off the tissue paper, and slipped it out of the bubble wrap to find a Sandman book by Neil Gaimon: "Book III: Dream Country." I'd forgotten that I'd said in my hints list that friends (specifically alryssa and gordon_r_d) had threatened me with strongly recommended it...

So: Yay!! Chocolate and pretties, and music, and a new book! if that's not Yule, I don't know what is...

Only thing is, she still hasn't (fully) revealed her Mudcat nickname... only the first and last letters... and the Mudcat site is down, so I can't search for it... oh well, I will later...

oh, and I discovered a new taste treat for myself...

Step one: open a tin of cocoa powder (just the plain powder, not "hot cocoa mix")

Step two: drop a bite-sized gingersnap into the cocoa power, flat side down, and gently pick it up again, so the bottom of the cookie is just lightly dusted with the powder.

Step three: pop the whole cookie in your mouth, cocoa side down.

Step four: chew well. Enjoy. Swallow.

The shock of the unsweetened cocoa on your tongue is bitter, of course, but then it mixes with the sugar in the cookie as you chew, and the cocoa takes on that mellow warmth we associate with chocolate. It's a nice balance to the sharp spiciness of the ginger without over powering it...

And yes. You probably do have to be a real chocoholic to enjoy the taste of unsweetened cocoa. I am a chocoholic, and I do enjoy it.

So there!