'Secret Santa' and 'Santa Clause'

Three days of Christmas and one day of recreation have passe and finally I get around to reviewing the wonderful time. It started with Christmas Eve which we spent with my parents. A wonderful evening with a rather early church service because of our young girls, a nice dinner with roulades and shining eyes because of some nice presents. More on that later...

The following two days belonged to our families. We spent Christmas Day at my in-laws and Boxing Day with my family. Although I really love to have my sister, aunt and parents around it was a relief to return home on Saturday evening. Yesterday was a very welcome chance to relax a bit. In addition to the Christmas stress one of our girls passed her cold to me and thus I wasn't too much in a good mood.

Anyway back to Christmas Eve. In Germany it's traditionally this very evening when the presents are handed over. Thus I was lucky enough to unwrap no less than three hobby related presents. First from matchlessly generous Mrs Monty. My dear wife made me a present of a new airbrush gun. It's the wonderful Harder & Steenbeck Pro Evolution Silverline. It has a solvent-resistant body and gaskets and bears a fine 0.15mm nozzle and comes with an additional 0.40mm nozzle. A very short first test with it was excellent. Only that I have to practise my humble airbrushing skills now...

Then I gladly opened the parcels from 'Secret Santa' and 'Santa Clause'. The first one travelled more or less half around the world and came from Georgia, United States. Inside I found a nicely painted trio of middle-eastern civilians and a suitable market stall:

Unfortunately the pictures I took on Christmas Morning don't do complete justice to the piece. It's a really nice scene with a obviously middle-eastern trader offering a chicken to two customers. It's a perfect addition to my starting modern warfare project to bring some life to the streets of Kabul. Unfortunately I don't take the time myself to prepare such scenic things and thus it is even more appreciated. Many, many thanks!

Then I opened the gift from 'Secret Santa' and I was chuffed to bits* again. The box contained a small brush, two sets of Perry Miniatures WW2 Desert Rats and a rugby 'All Blacks' mug:

*Is this term really in use?

The miniatures are a Bren Carrier as well as a 6pdr Anti-Tank Gun with crew. Wonderful for my Desert Rats since they don't have any support yet. The 6pdr is a perfect piece to counter any armoured threat from the middle of the war and should even prove useful against heavier tanks when playing Sicily with the figures. The Bren Carrier is simply a wonderful model and in my point of view kind of iconic for British troops in WW2. The brush with size 1 will be useful since this is one of my favourite sizes. Really an excellent and generous selection of hobby products but the mug delighted me even more. It was the surprise that made this piece so unique for me. 'Secret Santa' seems to have digged into my interests attentively. Many thanks for that, my unknown friend!

You see with both ventures I had a real blast. I'm very much looking forward to see my counterparts review the gifts they got. I really hope they are as happy with theirs as I am with mine. Many thanks again to Chris, Cath and Ian for organising 'Santa Clause' and 'Secret Santa' again. It has become a wonderful tradition in the wargaming bloggosphere and a I'm already looking forward to the next round in 2016.

Now enjoy the remaining few days of 2015!

2016 is right around the corner.