###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jan 19 - 09:26 AM

I'm sorry I missed this. I've had so much fun with it in the past, but my brain was so full of stuff last year that I totally forgot to check in.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: GUEST, Hollowfox's super-relieved Santa
Date: 04 Jan 19 - 01:28 AM

One of the elves just ran in to announce that the parcel was delivered today. Check your porch if it wasn't in the mailbox.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Hollowfox
Date: 07 Jan 19 - 04:52 PM

Thank you Stilly River Sage! I came home yesterday to find The Box on my front porch. When I opened it, there was a baggie of elephant garlic from your garden! I love that stuff. And then there were the homemade cookies; two kinds, both excellent and both being rationed. The homemade grape jelly got busted out for breakfast. The audiobook is one that I've been planning to get to for a while, so I have that to look forward to. And one question - is pickled okra just eaten, like pickled, or is it an ingredient? I've had okra before, but never in this form. Thank You So Much!

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 19 - 09:23 PM

I should have included a note - pickled okra is an acquired taste if you haven't eaten a lot of okra in a variety of ways. And those were packed a few months ago - they really benefit from waiting about six months before opening.

What I've told a few other non-Texas recipients is to wait till spring or next summer, then when they do an event with friends put the jar out. Try it, and if you have a southerner in the mix or someone who has spent time around cultures that eat okra, one of them will adore it. Many vegetables can be pickled, this is one of them. If you don't like it, send the rest of the jar home with someone who does. Even opened it keeps for quite a while so put it back in the fridge and try again later. Okra is in the hibiscus family, and I've always thought there was a hint of a perfume component in the flavor. The okra, peppers, and garlic packed with salt, mustard seed and vinegar are all from my organic garden.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 19 - 01:09 AM

ditto

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: GUEST,billybob's very repentent secret santa
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 03:28 PM

Your pressie got to the post office yesterday, so it should be to you in a week or ten days. I could tell a fine and accurate tale involving blizzards, a touch of 'flu, bookshops gumming up by mis-typing an ISBN number, and more, but it shouldn't have taken this long.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: GUEST,billybob's starting to worry a bit secret sa
Date: 05 Feb 19 - 04:30 PM

Has the pressie box arrived yet? It would take a bit, but I can duplicate most of it.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Firecat
Date: 06 Feb 19 - 08:02 AM

I'm worried as well. No contact from my Santa, nothing arriving...

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Firecat
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 06:12 AM

Ignore my last! My parcel arrived today with much interestings! Still trying to work out who you are, Santa, but thank you! I'm scouring the programme, as you said :-)

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: vectis
Date: 15 Feb 19 - 03:57 PM

Billybob has a lot going on in their life at the moment and will not be much on Mudcat as a result of that.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: GUEST,Billybob's secret santa
Date: 18 Feb 19 - 11:26 AM

My sympathies to Billybob. Could you check and see if her pressie arrived? I think it may lighten her day, and I'd hate to see it consigned to the dead letter office.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: billybob
Date: 25 Feb 19 - 06:43 AM

My lovely Santa, my parcel arrived on Friday. I am loving the Jean Redpath autobiography,sitting in the Sunshine( In England in February !!!) with a coffee and a delicious Philadelphia candie and on "Chapter 3 already.
The trinket box was full of surprises and how did you know I love crystals? It has indeed brightened my day.
Thank you Mary hope the snow isn't too deep in in Oh

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: Hollowfox
Date: 26 Feb 19 - 04:11 PM

I'm so glad it finally arrived! You said you liked crystals in your last SS Hints posting, so I thought it would work this time as well. I may have inadvertently not packed a couple of labels for two of the stones. One was the sodalite (the big one), that you can set on a light source and it lights up beautifully. I'll see if I can find the label for the little round one at home. The candies are called buckeyes, as they resemble the seed of Ohio's state tree. I think they'd make fine conkers.
Weather here is crazy. Last Sunday it was in the fifties (Fahrenheit) at noon (about 10 Celsius, I think), and it was snowing by 2:30 PM. Then yesterday we had 24 hours of high winds (like 60 miles per hour). The weather front was more than five hundred miles long (Great Lakes to North Carolina), so I think the snow all got blown a few hundred miles away. Enjoy your day!

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: vectis
Date: 27 Feb 19 - 04:38 AM

So pleased that everyone in this year's game has sent and received their presents. Farewell from Santa's little Organiser until October.

Subject: RE: ###***Secret Santa Hints and Teasing 2018***###
From: billybob
Date: 07 Mar 19 - 10:53 AM

Thank you for organising Vectisxx
I have just finished the book Hollowfox, what a wonderful read and what a wonderful lady Jean was. Now I have to get some of her CDs. The weather here has the turned back to winter,, strong winds and log fires for me.