Secret Santa

I've been meaning to post about this for a while but haven't had the time.

On the Wednesday night before Christmas I was at church.  We were having a pizza party with the kids & just sitting & talking.  One friend comes inside with an envelope & says it was on my car.  It has my name drawn real pretty on it & on the back it was "Please open now".  So I did.

Inside was a gift card to the runner store where I buy all my running gear, a 20% coupon for the store (good till Christmas eve), & a letter from "Santa".  Here's what it said:

Dear Shelly,


I had to send some of my elves to handle this important matter.  I know that you wanted new running shoes for Christmas, but Santa, as you can guess, is not a runner and could not pick out the right shoes.  I also can not have the elves make these shoes for you because we have already been the subject of copyright infringement on electronics and I would rather not begin a new one with Nike or New Balance.  I have enclosed a gift card to your favorite running store, The Runner  Use this and the coupon I had the elves create to buy ideal running shoes for you.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Ho! Ho! Ho!


Santa Claus

Immediately I thought it had to be Jeremy.  Not that many people even know of this store & I couldn't think of who else would be so generous.  The gift card was for $75!  But I didn't recognize the signature.  So I thought he must have had someone sign for him.  So I went home after church & waited for Jeremy to call when he got off work.  I even considered being sneaky & not saying anything to see if he'd mention it.

So 9:00 rolls around & he calls.  And one of the first things he says is that he found an envelope on his window.  What?!  Who is doing this?  His had his name drawn on it but his said to not open till Christmas.  So now I was really confused.

For the rest of the night it was all we could talk about.  Someone was trying to make our Christmas really special.  But who?  At one point I even suggested that Jeremy made his own envelope to throw me off but we laughed it off.  By the end of the night we could only think that his parents were behind this.

So the next day we dropped Shaylin off with Jeremy's mom so we could finally shop for her Christmas.  It was the first chance we'd gotten.  And we also went to the Runner to get my shoes.  But before we left my father-in-law showed off his new walking shoes, which he purchased at the same store!  This had us more convinced that it was them.

Finally Christmas morning rolls around.  After all the presents had been unwrapped, we finally got to Jeremy's envelope.  Finally, the secret would be out & "Santa" would be revealed.

Here's what Jeremy's letter said:

Dear Jeremy,

You have been working extra hard to provide for your family and I wanted to give you something that you and your family will enjoy together.  But unfortunately the stores are sold out, and my elves are not allowed to reproduce electronics.  So here is a gift card for the new Playstation Move Bundle.  I know you will enjoy it.  I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

Santa Claus

The gift card was for Simon Malls but it didn't have an amount.  So at this point we look at Jeremy's parents, waiting for them to fess up.  My mother-in-law says she doesn't know what's going on, but I could tell my father-in-law was holding back. 

And then Jeremy says it was him all along.

I was shocked.  He really did go as far as to make an envelope for himself to keep me off track!  I'm very impressed.

The mall gift card was actually just leftover from a friend.  It's has 68 cents on it.  It was this friend's wife who first gave me my envelope.  And the pretty drawing on the envelope?  The ladies at work helped with that.  And the Santa signature was done my Jeremy's lead, who was decided to have the best "Santa handwriting". 

When anyone asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said I wanted new running shoes.  So I was fine with just getting money towards them.  Good shoes aren't cheap & this would help.  But Jeremy was afraid I wouldn't get enough to cover it.  And he didn't want to just take me to the store.  He wanted it to be fun.  But he's been so busy working that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to find a way to make Christmas special for me.

You see, back in September Jeremy took on a part-time job, on top of his full-time job.  It's not because we're struggling.  We've been trying to become debt-free for a while & this will help us finally achieve that goal.  We made this decision together that he would work & I would continue staying home so we could keep Shaylin at home with me.  Some may not agree with our decision & that's fine.  It's for a short time & will benefit our family down the road. 

So with him working 60 hours a week he hasn't had free time to go shopping.  Then he came up with a way to add some fun to Christmas.  His dad has been known to do things like this but this was all Jeremy's idea.  But his dad was very impressed with his son. 

I'm thankful that I have a husband that works hard for our family & who's thoughtful & wants to give me the very best.