Marie's Reads: The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa

MY PACKAGE ARRIVED!!!

IT'S AWESOME!!!

Y'all! My package from my Secret Santa arrived yesterday!! I didn't post last night because.... *drumroll*.... my Secret Santa included two little gifts for my little one! I wanted to let him "unwrap" them and photodocument that to include here.

My Secret Santa individually wrapped everything in my box! I love that some of the packages were in Little Mermaid paper. That was the first real movie I saw in theaters, and our shared red hair made her my favorite Disney princess growing up.

(So many packages! It was so hard, but I made myself wait until after I did the dinner dishes to start opening.)

My Secret Santa did so right by me! I just by chance happened to unwrap in increasing order of excitement and glee. Two of the packages were obviously books, so I started with those. I LOVE books (hence the blog) and couldn't wait! First I uncovered Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes, then Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I don't know too much about Falling Kingdoms, but totally trust my Santa's opinion, and I've had Cinder on my "to-read" list forever. Owning it will certainly spur me to read it!

The rest of the packages got progressively better and better too! A box of chocolate? YES, PLEASE! A box of chocolate that plays cheery holiday music when opened? EVEN BETTER! Also sticky note book reminders- super helpful to a book blogger/grad student! Next, I unveiled a set of magnetic bookmarks proclaiming a proclivity for coffee- totally, 100% me. I have such a strong preference for magnetic bookmarks. And this is so timely- my current set of magnetic bookmarks (made from cardboard) are really starting to show their age. It was definitely time to replace them.

The last package I unwrapped happened to be the best thing EVER. Anne of Green Gables magnetic bookmarks!! I hadn't even known these existed! I told the hubby, "my Secret Santa doesn't even know it, but she could've mailed this and this alone and made my day!" :)

Ok. Now- are you ready for cuteness? I'll warn you- my boy's pretty cute. And I took these pics right after his bedtime nursing, so his cheeks are rosy. :) My Secret Santa told me in her card that the two packages in red were for him.

He had NO CLUE what to do with wrapped gifts. Even when I tried to help "start" them, he just wanted to eat the paper and not do any further unwrapping. Hubby said that was a little anticlimactic; I thought it was pretty on par for his age (7 mo). So after much more help from me, we revealed two board books! Spot's First Walk (with lift-a-flaps!) and Llama Llama Jingle Bells!

(Everyone we meet tries to help us parent. He only ever wears one sock in public and in pictures only because he removes them. Sometimes he has no socks. His fault. We try. Anyway, didn't I tell you? Total cutie patootie.)

The boy insisted that we read one of his new books right away at bedtime, so we read the Llama Llama book. It's his first Christmas story book! (It's his first Christmas!) He really seemed to like it.