Mmmm looks like everyone in the group has sent and received a gift, except Baker hasn’t received theirs yet.
Considering that these two weeks consist of two Sundays and two national holidays, I wouldn’t be TOO worried yet. I’ll ask the sender if they have tracking information.
I opened the box after I got home from work on Christmas Day. Those who think working on Christmas must be awful are missing out. I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday with more real goodwill in it. Clients were nice, thankful, and worried about us. Coworkers were relaxed and cheerful. There was little work because of cooperative weather and lots of fun.
So the second box. You had mentioned something homemade so that I what I expected to find in the box. And I did. A lovely, baby-size afghan/throw in many colors. It’s gorgeous.
I pull out the afghan and ker-thunk; something heavy falls out of the middle of it. It looks like a book. But not just any book, it’s a cookbook that was published in 1931 and it is chock-a-block full of the kind of recipes that my grandmother cooked with. This is going to me SO MUCH FUN to read and try recipes from. Nostalgia central.
Thank you @Baker This is awesome!
Czarcasm, I am so sad to read this. I’m off to search for that separate thread.
That particular book was from 1941. The series was published in Topeka from 1931 to 1958. I chose to look for that edition because it was the printing my grandmother had, and that she gifted to me. I treasured it because it had her handwriting in the extra pages. I started collecting them all and my mother helped, and then my sister. I found the first printing in a bookstore in New Mexico, online. Mom took a few of the copies to a local nursing home where one of the four original editors still lived, and she autographed them. We collected all the copies including reprints. Not having anyone to pass them on to they now reside in the archives of Kansas State University. It hurt to give up grandma’s copy but now I know it’s secure, so what I sent is close to my memories.
And Dopers helped me when I made a thread asking for help in the search.
Wow wow wow, now that is extra special to me. Furthermore, I told coworkers about it and now they want me to bring the book into work so they can look for recipes too. Wait until I tell them. This is fabulous.
And of course Dopers helped. If I hadn’t been so buried with work, I’d be spending more time here (like I used to do) and would have participated in the thread. I do miss hanging out on the board.
Thank you yet again!
Merry Seasons Every Holiday Reasons Everyone!
Why are my eyes leaking?
@FMera I am so happy you loved everything. I had so much fun putting your package together. The SDMB SS event is literally the highlight of my holidays.
People in Pittsburgh (well, the originals) say “y’inz” in place of “you guys,” or “y’all,” etc. JaneDoe42 had asked for coozies in her wish list, and when my daughter and I were downtown a few weeks ago, I knew just the place that would have it! I can’t remember what color I chose, but it reads, “CHEERS, Y’INZ.” Assuming Jane wouldn’t understand the reference, I included a printout of an explanation.
Mine, too.
Both the receiving (you did me GOOD this year, my Santa!) and the sending, which is always so fun to put together and then is ever so fraught with anxiety.
Speaking of …
My insanely tardy gift has (according to the good folks at USPS, who would neverever lie) moved out of purgatory & should - hopefully, fingers crossed & candles lit - be arriving today.
Good thing I didn’t send a puppy any perishables.
Awww! Glad to hear it.
Oh, heck yeah. I wore my new kerchief the other day and got a, “Oh, nice! It’s classy!” and I wore the fancy purple earrings tonight for New Years Eve, plus the day I got them.
… matter of fact:
OY!!! My package’s tracking number says it was delivered! 
It sure was! What a wonderful box, so bright and colorful.
The teeniest item was a pickle ornament for the tree. It it was real my dog would eat it.
There’s a little packet of dried Michigan blueberries, and the local Michigan theme is carried on with a cookie cutter shaped like the mitten part of the state of Michigan. Now, I opened this last night and there was chocolate bar filling the cutter. I say was, as it’s not there any longer. I couldn’t help myself. What happened to the UP though?
I lived in Michigan for three years, going up there to work at MSU. That lasted a year but I worked other places and remember the area fondly.
Then there is a bottle of honey aaaaaaaaaand a whole cookbook honey recipes. It is gorgeous. I have looked through it some and part of the introduction, about different flavors of honey reminds me of one I got here in town. At the farmer’s market there is a honey vendor and once he had some honey he’d obtained called catalpa honey. The flavor was unique, kind of nutty.
Thank you so much.
I am SO relieved it finally arrived.
The pickle is supposedly a German tradition, meant to being luck.
(A Doper sent me one, as part of my Secret Santa years ago. So I’m continuing the “tradition.”)
Did you happen to notice a tiny red candy heart piped onto the chocolate in the cookie cutter? It marked the location of Muskegon.
That was the one thing I knew for sure I wanted to get for you … the rest was kinda winging it.
You’d mentioned liking cookbooks, and the honey one had such lovely photos that I couldn’t resist it, and then I saw the little bottle of local honey right next to the dried fruit, and it all kinda came together after that.
Thank you for being so patient, and thanks once more to @Nayna for organizing and for shepherding the last of the flock until everyone was satisfied.
purplehorseshoe: Looks good! I wish I could rock a schmatte, but I just can’t get one to sit right. Glad you like the earrings.
Spam has a museum & gift shop in MN (we took a road trip there this last summer); mebbe you should clothe your accessory. 
And that’s a wrap (ha!) for 2024! I love doing this - it’s just the right combination of simple and stressful. I hope to be chatting with you all in 11 months!
Well not quite a wrap. I want to publicy acknowledge and thank WOOKINPANUB for the wonderful Secret Santa gifts that she sent to me. I’ve been enjoying the See’s candy, one every other day. The lavender soap is in the bathroom just off the kitchen and I use it frequently and it feels so soft on my hands. I’ve started sending my daughter one of the thoughts from the mini book “Neverthess, She Persisted!” each day. And the beautifully colored magnet is on my file cabinet so it brightens up my home office and brings me joy each time I see it.
What are the odds that 2 people would get each other as Secret Santas? Maybe the best part of the Secret Santa exchange is that I’ve made a new friend.
Thanks Nayna for setting up the Secret Santa exchange!
Blessings to all Secret Santa participants for a wonderful New Year! 
Isn’t that crazy? My daughter and I used some website where you enter all of the names and it chooses random pairs. I guess it was meant to be!
I made biscuits today and used the honey you gave me. It’s really tasty. Maybe I’ll check out online availability, until spring and the local vendor at the farmer’s market.
