It’s like a Secret Santa, but it’s not. Rachel called it that last year, and the name stuck. Me and my friends do this in the interest of getting one another more than just fuzzy socks and candy canes.*

Because Hanukkah just finished and because Christmas is coming up, I thought I would share the saga of my gift-giving adventures with you.

I started out not knowing what to get my friend– I know what she likes, but not what she didn’t already have, if that makes sense. So, I looked high and low for something for her. While I originally wanted to get her a light-up Hanukkah sweater, because she’s always cold, it cost way too much for me to get it for her**, which was really sad. But! I was sneaky and found out what she didn’t already have, so I got her a t-shirt instead, which she really liked. Phew! I was really worried beforehand, especially with the shirt looking so different in person!***

However! It turns out that the way it happened this year is that we all got each other, so we got our presents and gave them to the same people. Whoops! But, this is what I got in exchange for the shirt:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is literally one of the best things I’ve ever gotten in the history of ever and it may sound like I’m exaggerating but I’m not. I really love it and I’m really touched that my friend remembered how much I love Fall Out Boy 🙂

But yeah, that’s our way of celebrating the holidays. I’m glad I was able to celebrate them with my friends before a few of us go off abroad!

* not that fuzzy socks and candy canes are bad, but there are a bunch of us and we like to get one another more substantial gifts. So, we each draw one name out of the hat and give one person one single gift.

** We established a $20 cap, because that’s roughly equivalent to how much we would spend if we got everyone fuzzy socks and candy canes. The sweater I found was way more than that.

*** Instead of tan, it was yellow. Like, so yellow that if she ever goes to the zoo and decides to wear it, the monkeys would go bananas. But, it had the same image on it (a reference to her favorite episode of her favorite TV show), so it still worked out.