I was a scientific glassblower earlier in life. My work was with GE; lighting was my gig for years. Here is one of my more rudimentary creations.

Not nearly good enough for a Pinside Secret Santa gift!

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I’m so excited! This arrived at my door yesterday, safe and sound. It even has some wonderful custom artwork added to the box! I might wait to open it- I don’t want to wake up any aliens earlier than expected. ...but what if they are alien chinchillas?

Thank you Secret Santa!!!! And thank you to LesManley for the best thread on Pinside!

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I already received one nice sized box from my Secret Santa but I came home to another box today! It was decorated with stickers and stamps of some interesting music sources that I’ll have to investigate a little further. When I opened it, there was a card included and the gifts have numbers on them, so I will absolutely open them in order.

My Secret Santa is very generous and the gifts have already brightened up my holidays. I’m not sure how much longer I can wait to open them!

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Dear Secret Santa-

If your goal was to make me feel like a kid on Christmas day - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Your thoughtfulness and generosity has completely blown me away.

I posted pictures of my gifts earlier when they arrived; my curiosity got the better of me last night as I was staring at them under the tree, so I plunged in to them. Gift #1 was a Charlie Brown Christmas tree - complete with one red ball ornament and Linus' blanket to wrap around it. I have great memories of watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special with my family when I was a kid, and it was a favorite of my dad as well. Thank you, Santa!IMG_2387 (resized).jpg

Gift #2 was a beautiful glass icicle - I added it to the Charlie Brown tree for now, but it will go on my tree later. I really enjoy getting ornaments as gifts; every ornament on my tree has a story behind it, and I'll remember the story behind this one as well for years to come. Thank you Santa!

Gift #2.5 was a Titan Pinball post tool. This is useful to help keep hexagonal posts from spinning around when you want to remove a screw from them. A simple but incredibly helpful tool. Thank you Santa!

Now, the next numbered gift was 4, so I could only assume that the larger box was #3, so I opened that next - and I couldn't believe my eyes. It is a Lit Frame! It is absolutely beautiful and a completely unexpected and generous gift! I'm speechless - a simple THANK YOU seems inadequate, but THANK YOU SANTA! I have been looking at getting one of these- I had already picked out the perfect spot for it!

As if that wasn't enough - on to #4 - and it is the Brian Allen version of the Attack from Mars translite! I really like Brian's interpretations of the original Williams/Bally artwork and was thinking about getting something of his- Santa must be a great mind reader! It took me about 3 nanoseconds to put that in the new Lit Frame. It is simply amazing - the lit frame with the translite looks beautiful! Again, THANK YOU SANTA!!!!!

True to form (for me), the Lit Frame was mounted immediately with the translite in it. The Master Bedroom is behind this wall, so a few seconds with a drill bit and it is done (the dresser mirror is behind it so you'll never see the cord). I can't stop looking at it. The lighting is amazing, the artwork is amazing, and the generosity of my Secret Santa is just incredible.

THANK YOU, SECRET SANTA for making this the best Christmas for me in a long, long time! All my best wishes and thanks to my Secret Santa for hitting this one waaaaay out of the park, and Merry Christmas to all!

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It is always the best part of the holidays for me and probably many others on Pinside. Thanks again, LesManley and to my incredible and generous PSS as well! All of you Secret Santa’s completely rock!

Agreed! How many of us have brought a new pin in the house when the spouse is out. A few weeks later, you get the question “Is that a new pinball machine?” And you say “oh, no. We have had that one for a while now!”