Secret Santa

I've been using a community website called Reddit for some time now. Anyone can submit a link (funny pictures, news, How To Guides...) to the site and the users vote on the pages. There aren't any guidelines for voting, just whatever you feel like. The links with the highest votes make their way to the front page and become popular. It's a fun way to surf the web and it has developed into quite the community.

In November, someone decided to try running an internet Secret Santa program. All you had to do was provide your address and you'd be anonymously paired with someone else to shop for. $15 was the suggested dollar amount. I trusted the website pretty well and though it would be a lot of fun. I was right!I spent the first ten days of December trying to find the strangest collection of stuff for a guy living in Washington DC. Here's what I assembled for him:







The second picture was actually posted on the internet by the guy I was giving to. All told, he got:

• Bucky Balls
• A light for his toilet
• A light for his cell phone
• A USB fan

Here's what he wrote:

"All of these gifts are AWESOME! When the mailman pulled up, I was so damn excited I ran out the door to greet him in order to get my package seconds sooner. Thanks SS!"

He's living in Washington D.C. and still doesn't know who I am.

I sent that gift out December 10th. That same day, I received my Secret Santa gift. I can't tell you how excited Alicia and I were at this mystery box. It could have been practically anything. The excitement was too much to wait for Christmas and I opened it up that night. Here's what I got:







My Secret Santa clearly found out I was a mathematician. It's a Klein bottle, which is actually a one sided shape. I actually recognized the box before I opened it, since the same manufacturer made my Klein bottle from last year. Now I've got a set!It was an extremely awesome experience, one I'll happily repeat next year!