Every year, Jana of That Artsy Reader Girl, generously keeps up the tradition of Secret Santa started at the now defunct The Broke and the Bookish, where she sends your info to someone and sends you an entirely different person’s info. There are different levels for participation and I’m sure it takes a lot of energy to get everyone squared away, and that’s all before people start having challenges (such as anyone sending to or from Canada this holiday season). So, every year she runs it, I and the hundreds of other people who look forward to this annual tradition are terribly grateful to her.

This year, my package arrived early (mine snuck out at the deadline and arrived, like the real Santa, on Christmas Eve). I always admire the folks who wait. And sometimes I let the box sit a couple days to get closer to Christmas, but I never make it all the way to the holiday. I’m too excited and impatient!

Kathleen, my Santa, hails from Delaware and put together a fanciful package full of books and other delights. First is a list of places I might want to visit in her home state (and nearby Pennsylvania), and since we’re just a couple hours away and since Delaware is home to my favorite beaches in the area, we will be checking them off. She also tucked in a couple rolls of pretty washi tape and a pen from her work, which, coincidentally and unbeknownst to her, is also the name of the neighborhood where I live in D.C.

Because she knew we’d recently acquired kittens, she included this delightful ornament, which I put well out of reach of the felines (although, to be fair, Coal has challenged my understanding of what that means).

Kathleen made this ornament for me. It includes quotes from The Princess Bride, one of my favorite movies and a terrific book. It is also out of reach of the cats, because I think they would love to find their way inside to take all those quotation scrolls and squirrel them away under furniture.

There is tea and a single person teapot with a cherry blossom motif (it’s required with D.C. citizenship to love cherry blossoms), perfect for putting on a tray within reach as you read on the couch. Kathleen included some delicious spicy holiday jam, a local product filled with berries and jalapeño, and which has been giving my morning toast that extra something something to help start winter mornings.

And finally, the books. She gave me the first of the manga adaptations of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, which I’m very excited to see how they put that together. She also gave me Evie Woods’ The Lost Bookshop, which looks so good. And finally, she gave me Elin Hildebrand’s Winter in Paradise. I’ve read the first two books in Hildebrand’s Winter Street series, and this is the first in a newer wintry series set in the Caribbean instead of Nantucket. I love a beach read when it’s cold outside!

Kathleen, thank you so much. I love everything and am looking forward to hours of reading and drinking tea this winter! Happy #TBTBSanta!