Yeah, couldn’t believe it. My first English 10.
It’s going to the pool room.
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I can’t even remember who matched you. I shall investigate when I get home tomorrow.
I won’t share who it is publicly.
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Damn that energy is beautiful!
Wow. Where to start. I suppose with a story.
At first I got my Secret Santa gift and I was pretty dang confused. I knew the address on the outside to be Rusty’s from past business but he had scribbled out his name with black pen. I thought it was an extremely unsuccessful attempt to hide his identity as my secret santa. And I opened it and it was this:
I’m a fan of Dollar Tree packs. I like what they did with them. (Quick note: My SS and probably a lot of other people get them confused with Sample packs. I’m working on an article and complete scan collection at the moment and that should go live before too long. Forgive my tangent. I’m a sucker for learning opportunities in collecting.)
Note the (Part 1 of 2). It was like a cliff hanger in the worst way possible.
Time passes and I’m on break at home (causing delays in gift reception) and my good buddy @woolsluk messages me to see if I got the second part of the gift. That was when I figured out that I was wrong about my Secret Santa! What a twist!
So I had to wait a moment longer. But I got to enjoy, on my first day of the new semester, this incredible gift.
Merry Christmas to you, too, Luke. 
And here was some of the protective packaging, in case anyone is curious as to what type of oats Luke eats.
Here are some really cool little drawings that will henceforth adorn my desk corkboard. Luke, your best of your worst is better than the best of my best.
And a thoughtful series of small notes to be read as one continuous one.
Have more confidence in your handwriting. It’s perfectly legible! Also, never be intimidated. Feel free to just message me if you ever want to talk about pokemon cards. I’m pretty into that. And your SS gift blew mine so far out of the water I can’t even begin to describe it. I’ve been in the middle of multiple significant life transitions lately and this fell by the wayside for me. I don’t deserve a gift as great as this, but it has truly brought me so much joy in a stressful time.
The reminder to update my needs list was particularly helpful. I already had an XY Sample pack. Which made it even cooler that you got me a Dollar Tree pack instead. It meant I got to bust it open! Sample packs only contain commons. But there is an actual shot at rares of all types in the Dollar Tree packs! Since I already own a set of XY Dollar Tree packs to keep sealed, I tested me luck with this one!
And it echoed the luck I’m used to having. But this was my first chance to open a pack for fun in the past two years at least. Haha. Thank you for gifting me an experiential part of the hobby that I too often neglect.
There was a second attempt at the Sample Pack inclusion though, and this one was absolute gold. Not only was it a Sample pack, but it was the most current one that I had not yet added to my collection! I am so thankful to have this hole filled in my collection and I have you to thank for making it happen. From feeling the pack and looking it over, I can also tell that this sample pack contains an additional insert, presumably informational and set-specific, that other sets do not! How cool!
Next was something that Luke has no idea how bad I’ve wanted. You’re right: I do love sealed items. I also love niche products and historical pieces. You managed to take all of those and wrap them up in a dream piece that I’ve long wanted but have never been able to justify the extra expenditure for. Two years ago I purchased the Chinese Championship Arena and quickly fell in love with it. It is obscure, has great art, represents an underappreciated language in the hobby and also gave us the opportunity to explore a largely undocumented period in the Pokemon universe. As many of these packs were dragged to the surface by our forum’s own Chinese Pokemon Guru, I thought they would be a great compliment to my Chinese Championship Arena. But the cost was all over the place for the packs and I kept running into other great acquisition opportunities. But today that ends! Of course, this also dooms me because I’ll need to pick up all of the remaining artworks. 
This gift ended with a great compliment to the other items gifted. A sealed booster from the exFireRed & LeafGreen expansion in Japan. If everyone knew how many times I had to ask friends for help understanding anything in the Japanese hobby, they’d wonder if I knew anything about the hobby at all. But that ends incrementally when my collection diversifies. Thank you for this wonderful last piece in my gift.
This was one of the most thoughtful gifts I received this entire season. And I’m so blessed to have it come from the community that I love and care about so much.
Thank you, Luke, for these treasures. But more importantly, thank your for your time and thought. This was a truly wonderful gift that has brought me much happiness and sentiment.
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Nice
I’m so glad you enjoyed it I was worried at first that I hadn’t sent enough, then that it wouldn’t get there so this has had me stressed slightly haha! I tried to keep it a mix of my own ideas and stealing from your wants list, I had a feeling the chinese pack would hit it off with you, I was originally gonna buy 2 for you but they guy only had mew arts left so I decided against it and went with the FRLG pack because I love the retro art and the game screenshots and I thought you may also appreciate it. Trust me when I say I take as much pleasure from you enjoying this as you do yourself!
Big thanks to rusty @thecharizardauthorty as well for helping me out
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Luke outdid himself. Wow, those are some pretty rocking gifts!
I’m happy that you got to open a pack for fun. You are right – We often don’t get the opportunity to enjoy the little things that used to make us so happy.
@azulryu I’m glad you liked gifts I sent you! :DD
I received package from my Secret Santa a while ago but didn’t have much time to post pics.
Tonight I finally did it so… here we go!
And who’s the mysterious 01010000 01101111 01101011 01100101 01010100 01110010 01100001 01100100 01100101 ?
It’s @poketrade! Thank you very much!
Weren’t you my Secret santa last year as well?! :DD
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So many pikachus, nice
Ahhh so you got it, I was already panicking a bit that it was lost or so haha 
Yes, I was also your secret santa last year, I pm’d Milhouse and he said it was just pure coincidence
Take care of them 
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