Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

I had considered not signing up for Secret Pal 5. It can be kind of a hassle to figure out what to get, especially if you and your pal aren't a lot a like. Plus, you've gotta put it all together in a box and go to the post office, and I'm incredibly lazy. But, it is so much fun to pick out little gifts and of course to see that envelope or box on my desk when I come in to the office....

I'm so glad I signed up, because my SP is incredible! I got a nice box lined in beautiful purple tissue paper and filled with goodies:



Yum! Yum! Yum! I LOVE those Lindt Lindor Truffles, so I can't wait to dig in. I even managed to wait long enough to bring the whole thing home and take a photo - very self-disciplined of me, don't you think? The fun doesn't stop there, though. After all that chocolate, I got some fun soap to clean my fingers with:



Isn't that tin cute? I'll definitely be using that again after I finish up the soap. She also included some of my favorite knitting tools, beaded stitch markers:



Aren't they beautiful? I love beaded stitch markers so much! They make me happy every time I slip one from one needle to the next. The little ladybug one in the middle is adorable! My absolute favorite, thing, however, is my new prized possession:



Isn't it AWESOME???? I couldn't be more tickled! I just love combining two of my favorite things - Gromit and knitting! I just heard that there's going to be a new W&G movie coming out and I can't wait to see it!!

Secret Pal - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I can't even express how happy these gifts have made me. I'm gonna enjoy this for a long time!

I didn't get to use my stitch markers yet because I had family in town last night. My sister's mom (my dad's ex-wife), who I still call my step-mom, was in town last night for a wedding. My brother and his kids and I met up with her at Outback Steakhouse for dinner. We were joined by her boyfriend, her sister (my aunt) and her niece (my cousin). My cousin also had her 8 month old baby boy along. He was SOOOOO adorable! Huge baby with such kissable chubby cheeks. I returned the pictures my stepmom lent me to download into my dad's digital frame, so we also spent some time looking at them together and laughing at our horrible clothing, unfortunate hairstyles and gigantic eyeglasses. There were a lot of pictures of my brother and my cousin playing together when they were really little and now here they both are, all grown up with kids of their own. Seems impossible! It was a really fun night and time flew by much too quickly.