This is a story of two people who didn't choose the Secret Santa life. The Secret Santa life chose them.
Stay with us on this.
Debbie, in Fort Collins, received an email last week from a man named Mark.
Mark is a total stranger, who lives in St. Louis, and whose last name is similar to hers. His wife is also named Debbie, and it turns out that Debbie has a similar email address to Debbie.
The email came with an attachment called Mark's Big A** Christmas List. Debbie decided to open it and found a word document full of all the things Mark wanted this year.
Among many other things, Mark asked his wife for a plane (yes, it was a joke), concert tickets, shoes... and a 2018 Labrador Retriever calendar. Debbie scanned the list and decided to spread some Christmas cheer. She bought Mark his calendar and sent it to him in St. Louis.
"I opened up his list and looked at it. He had like an airplane on it, and tickets to something, and so obviously I picked the calendar because i can afford it," she laughed.
Then, a few days later, she had her own package in the mail. She noticed Mark's name, and at first thought he sent back her calendar. Once Debbie opened it, she found a canvas-sized print of her backyard in the fall. He had found Debbie on Facebook, saw a photo of her yard, and ordered it.
"It is one of my all time favorite pictures of our yard," she wrote on Facebook. "This made me so happy. It's nice to have some pleasantness in our world.""I wasn't expecting anything in return from this man. I don't know, it just tickled me," she told Next. "I've always been a kind of pay-it-forward type person, and I've made it my goal the last year to compliment as many people as I can."Mark told Debbie in an email that he decided a "thank you" note wasn't enough to repay the joy that she brought to him. That's why he ordered her a gift, too."It was nice to know that there are just people out there just like me, who aren't all caught up in everything, and we can be nice to each other," she said.Debbie says her and Mark have both agreed that if Mark ever comes to Fort Collins, or if she ever makes it to Saint Louis, that they'd meet up for a beer.
