CG Express

Number 1 of 5

#1 . Three secret Santa gifts…Anyone ever take part in a Secret Santa gift exchange? I haven’t for many years. I remember one in high school when I was the new girl. By some unknown, freak, altered universe for a few months I was grafted into the medium cool girl’s click. I blew it of course because no way could I keep up with kids who came from mega rich families. They went on actual family vacations on a plane…to other countries! Apparently, the vote to let me in was not unanimous. One girl could tell, no amount of niceness was going to make me one of them. But the universe shifted again and come Christmas, I was secretly matched with her, my arch enemy. It was humiliating. Every week for five weeks, I had to leave a little gift for her. While all the rest of the girls exchanged actual gifts, I scraped together a few dollars and could only give treats, chapstick, barrettes (which were in at the time). I buried the rest of the experience in the same cemented pit I buried a lot of not so fun experiences in my past. Flash forward to modern day. I’m on a new team and they have a secret Santa. I got assigned the boss. Yes, that’s my luck. But there are lists and there are max amounts and I’m not a broke teenager. We are a remote team so we’re sending gifts to each other’s homes. The instructions were not to open the gift until the party. However, I’ve ordered a bunch of gifts on-line so I had to be vigilant opening which boxes I opened and which I did not. The first gift that came was labeled as part of the gift exchange. I thought I was in the clear. Another box came and I ripped right into it. A slip of a paper came flying out, a gift receipt! But the inner box had a picture of what it contained, a mug. Disappointing but okay, why a second gift? The next night another box. Surely this was something I ordered. I started opening it and there was another gift receipt and note, “Merry Christmas”. It was from my boss. But did she send it because she was my secret Santa or did she just send a gift? Mysteries, mysteries. It’s Christmas so it’s all joy and good cheer, regardless, I have three gifts!

Come back tomorrow for Number 2 of 5! Merry Christmas! Clare