Mumsnet Christmas Appeal: the thank you thread

[SandyMumsnet]

So the spreadsheets have been completed, the matches have gone out, all is done.

We're all waiting with bated breath. If you're a recipient and you'd like to pop back on here when your gift arrives to thank your donor then do remember to look out for your MN code which will have been included in the address on the packaging and include it in your post. The person who sent the gift will then be able to know it's you.

If anyone has any questions about anything to do with the Mumsnet Christmas Appeal then do please email [email protected].

Ho Ho Ho!

Lighthouse don't be whatever you sent will be lovely. For me just knowing someone nominated me was enough, receiving SS's was a lovely added extra and the whole SS thing a reminder of how thoughtful mumsnetters can be. It's never about monetary value.

Think of how happy presents from your kids make you. Those are always one of my favourite presents although they're usually worth pence. I know I'll be delighted with whatever my three have clubbed together to get me this year especially because I think it's the Merlin calendar

You will have touched someone and made their day xx

I have no idea what my recipient number is but my Secret Santa is MN072 :)

Huge box arrived yesterday, thank you thank you thank you! DH and I were lost for words and it means so much that you put a lot of thought into it. Am quite overwhelmed to be given such a lovely gift especially as the postage alone was a lot.

It was very considerate of you to leave the DCs' stuff unwrapped - the toys are fab though, and will be much appreciated (I am especially excited about the k'nex set :o). I'm afraid a couple of chocolate coins got broken in the posting so we had to eat those ones but the rest will go in the stockings before we snaffle those too :o

Love the candles too, very nicely scented and made me feel festive! The wrapped things will be under the tree so I'm very excited to find out what they are.

And please say a huge thank you to your little DD for the picture, and tell her the snowman will be going on the tree :)

To sum up - thank you SO much! :) xxx

I posted on here the other day to thank my lovely mumsnetter for the two parcels and I've just realised a box I'd received was more goodies It's been rather manic here and I'd just put it with all my other boxes I need to unpack and wrap up. I hadn't even looked at it properly. Sorry. It's full of such lovely stuff and the kids will love the stuff. I feel so blessed. Thank you, whoever you are x

3girliessanta I am so tearful after opening your last lovely gift,a pretty candle candle with Flora's name and snowflakes on, such a lovely thoughtful gift, following on from the huge box of beautifully wrapped presents received at the weekend which will go under the tree later - just need to have a big tidy up first!
Thanks so much for your kind thoughts and for spending the time and trouble on us this year. Just hope next year I can do the same for someone else!

Much love and thanks to you and your family, have a lovely Christmas! XXXXX.

fuzzpig am so glad you got nominated, you deserve it x

:)

I love MN :)

3giries, I'm so sorry I made you tearful, was so unsure what to buy but it felt wrong to not acknowledge your beautiful Flora. There is another special present in the box that you need to open before Christmas, the one wrapped in red/gold paper. I hope it will not make you too tearful, certainly not intended. Sending love and (((hugs))) to you, your DH and DD's xxx

Don't worry - I am always crying, I was just so touched that a kind stranger did this for us, not upset this time. It will look lovely on out Christmas table, I will find the other present soon and open it. XXXXX

In case you were wondering how I knew your DD's name, in your email to MNHQ you mentioned woollyhugs. I am proud to be one of the woollyhug brigade and had knitted a square for your DD's blanket so was able to double check her name. I have not been stalking you

I will be thinking of you on Christmas day and will also have a candle lit in memory of Flora and many other children who are no longer with their parents xxx

It is OK, I always mention her name in my posts, I did not think I had a stalker!
Yes, there will be so many of us this Christmas, I am sure it does not get any easier, I cannot imagine it.

Thanks again. XXXXX

Yesterday I got a lovely, lovely package. It was the second one! I feel so lucky and so honoured to be treated like this. I'm sure there are lots of people worse off than us but DH keeps reminding me how I'm always trying to help people on MN and IRL and that I do deserve a treat. So I'm trying my best not to feel bad!!

Thank you SS 058 for your lovely gifts, they are absolutely fantastic We are all so pleased. DD2 has already become very attached to her new cuddly rabbit and DD1 was ecstatic with her stamps. She's always loved playing with my card-making stuff so she was so pleased about having her own. She loves the DVD too and was very impressed with the homemade bracelet, which she is wearing right now- it's almost as if you know us, the presents are so perfect. Am trying not to scoff too much of the chocolate! DH is going to get cracking on the cleaning with the sponges

Thanks again to MNHQ for organising all this, it has made this Christmas so much more special.

And here come the tears

Aaaaaargh MNtowers can you please re-send me the email with all my persons details I've just gone to check it before I posted today and it has been deleted Sorry!!!

Will report this post so that you see it quickly.

SS212 Thank you very much for the luxury truffles you sent me. How did you know that I'm a chcoholic

It was so very uplifting to know that someone has taken the time and effort to nominate me and to send me such a lovely parcel. I'm now almost 4 weeks post the major op and getting stronger every day. I will start chemo in the New Year and so far the outlook is good.

Thank you again - I cannot adequately express how much your kind actions have meant to me.

Have a lovely Christmas.

I don't have a ss number, but I am recipient number 044, and you have the initial c :)
I was overwhelmed to be nominated this year. I have been a member for 9 years, but this year has been strange for various reasons and I'm nowhere near the regular poster I once was. The year started happily for us as I was expecting dc3, but things went badly wrong over the summer when dp walked out on us, leaving me a bit lost tbh. After a lot of thinking we moved last month very very far away to be closer to my family. I've had to uproot the dc from everything they know and face the unknown myself which has been the most unutterably scary thing I've ever had to do- a real leap of faith, and one I felt almost pushed to do rather than choosing it if that makes any sense. It was the first time in all my 8 years of being a mother that I honestly didn't feel I was doing the right thing fro my dc and that was just the most awful thought. But now we're here things seem better day to day, and I came home to a missed parcel card yesterday addressed to the Mumsnetter of the house :) I've just been to collect it and you are an absolute star. It's like you know my children, the things you've picked are just perfect for them (those snowball chocolates are their favourite and the ones I'd bought to put in their stockings somehow found their way into my mouth ) The map made me smile from ear to ear too, I cannot wait til the weather cheers up so we can go properly exploring. And the generous voucher, I was just in there this morning looking at all the perfume I can't justify buying myself, I may just have to pop back and buy myself something to wrap up so I have something to open on Christmas morning. Either that or something to tackle the worry lines I've developed this year!
So to you, whoever you are, you're a star. It measns the world to know that someone even noticed and thought to nominate us, and to recieve such lovely gifrs is just wonderful. I've never believed the nest of viper rep, we give as good as we get for sure, but under that this place has a heart of absolute gold, and that's why so many of us stay here, year after year, hopefully giving back as much as we gainf rom it ourselves. I think it's made me a better person in some way too as it's made me realise that the words on a screen can come from anyone, your neighbour, the person you see on the schoolrun, your friend even, and you never know what's going on behind the facade. Certainly noone knew how bad things had got for us. I can already see things looking up for us, after a week or two of feeling absolutely despairing that we'd done the wrong thing by moving here, I feel far more settled. We have a lovely home with our family around us, and really that's all I can ask for. So Merry Christmas, and thank you so very much. I don't really have the words but please know that it means the world :)

Fuzzpig delighted that you got the box, I was a little worried it wouldn't get there on time. So glad you liked the presents for the DC, I was just going by my nieces and nephews' tastes as my two are a little younger. I hope you like your gifts as much. :-)

Take care and Happy Christmas

To SS125

Thank you so much for the gifts you sent.

I received them this morning having just got back from speaking the school about my lovely ds1 being bullied and the school not handling it at all well. So I was at a very low ebb and receiving your parcels reminded me how important it is to remember that the world isn't just full of bullies and uncaring people, there are lovely people like yourself out there as well.

2012 has been a tough year and the start of 2013 isn't looking much better, so it really helps to know that there are lovely people in this world who willingly and selflessly give their time, effort and money to brighten the Christmas of someone like me that they've never even met. It restores my faith in people, when I'll admit I had started to become very insular, trusting people less and less.

I have been really good and put them all under the tree until Christmas morning, but will admit to hanging up the lovely heart where it can catch the light and sparkle and intend to burn the candle while I'm wrapping the dcs presents, to help get me into the Christmas mood.

Dd was home when the parcels arrived and was really excited and I'm sure the boys will be the same when they come home to find more presents under the tree for them.

Your gifts will have special significance for ds1 as they will reassure him that there are good people out there, as obviously, being bullied and not properly supported and protected at school - not for the first time - he is finding it hard to believe that just at the moment.

Next year I shall involve all three dcs in picking MN Secret Santa presents for others, as I really want to share with others how much the gifts I have received this year mean to me.

... and there go the tears again.

Wishing you and your family a fantastic Christmas and that 2013 is a year full of wealth, health, success and happiness for you all.

Oh MN125

Getting a bit bloody smoky in this stupid office. Ahem.

Thank you so much for the voucher. It means a lot. :) Last year was shite for all sorts of reasons. It means more than you could know.

And, thank you to whoever nominated me. It is such a privilege being surrounded by so many incredible women.

I had to leave work early today as my continuing health problems mean that I just can't keep going some days. I was feeling very fed up and indulging in some professional self-pity.

Everything changed when I came home to a parcel to the Mumsnetter of the house and yet again my breath was taken away by the generosity of my secret santa.

I am truly astounded at how generous you have been to someone that you don't know. The gifts are amazing and I feel really lucky not only to have been nominated in the first place, but to have been matched with some truly lovely people.

Well I'm rather to have just opened the door to another lovely courier and had my second parcel delivered. Again, I don't have a number, but have had a lovely letter from whoever you are, and the presents sound absolutely fab- I've started doing mine this afternoon and your efforts have put mine to shame. The gifts again make it sound like you know my dc, they are perfect, right down to the Spiderman wrapping, and I know ds2 will love chasing it around :) I don't know what I can say that will add to what I put earlier, please just know that you've put a smile on my face that has been absent for far too long. I shall tell my dc that someone, somewhere thought they deserved an extra gift for being so so good this year. I'll be thinking of you and your generosity on Christmas day, and hope you have a very good one yourself, and a great New Year

MN184 - I'm so glad it arrived ok after trying to sort it from a distance! A very Happy Christmas to you and your family. Xxx

MN102

Rather infuriatingly there was also another specially selected item that I had ordered that only arrived today but I need to know if your oldest child is large or small for their age or average as it is a size down from the blue long sleeved t shirt top that I included.

Are you able to size them up from that one re "needs to grow into it/ fits O.K. now" and let me know ?

I know some of the stuff I included was a little random but I thought it might do for stocking fillers and my dc like getting a special Christmasy mug each year to mark the last few days running up to Santa's arrival.

Watchoutforthatsnail I'm really glad you got the voucher I sent and as I said I wish it could have been more! Glad to hear it sounds like you have got another donator too I really hope that your house move went well and that 2013 is the year that everything becomes bloody brilliant for you. I'm glad that you were my recipient, you sound like a lovely person x x x