What happens when you share on the internet that you steal Christmas cards

Exactly two weeks ago, I was feeling hyper! Not the way most people do, but in a weird jump-on-the-bed-do-the-chicken-dance-wave-at-strangers-steal-their-christmas-cards kind of way. Aaaaaand I did all of those things.

The Christmas card I stole from our previous tenants still adorns our fireplace. In my defense, they'd left the country two years ago and the cover art of the card was too pretty to throw away. Shane still feels uncomfortable every time he looks at it.

The day I published the post in which I mentioned my grand theft, Shane got a message from one of his friends in Norway, asking for our mailing address. He kind of knew why she was asking but very conveniently forgot to tell me about it. You could argue that he was kindly keeping it a surprise for me but I know him better than that. He doesn't really care for surprises, nor does he have the capacity to remember to inform me of the important things. I'd be lucky if I got a 10-minute heads up before he invited someone over to our home. So when a package arrived from Norway last Tuesday, I totally got to enjoy my little surprise.

So that I don't have to steal Christmas cards anymore

And some handy Norwegian lessons for when we visit her :)

And want to know the best part? I have never even met my secret Santa from Norway before. I've heard about her from the time Shane and I were dating but we never even exchanged niceties over Facebook in the past. I wish I could explain how overwhelmingly happy it makes you to be at the receiving end of so much kindness from a person you've literally never met before in your life. Thank you for making me want to wave and smile at more strangers, Maritha :)

Because at the end of the day, no matter how bad things look for me, people like you remind me that there is hope. There's much kindness and hope in this world. Like we learned from The Lord of The Rings,

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.