The past two Easters, I have participated in an online Easter gift exchange through St. Pixel's, an online church and forum for Christians from Great Britan. At this time last year, St. Pixel's was still operating as "Church of Fools", originating from Ship of Fools.

The organizers of the site proposed we have an Easter gift exchange, with a spending limit of $10.75 Canadian, or five British pounds. You e-mail the organizer about your intention to participate, and they e-mail you another participant's contact information so you can send them an Easter present.

Last year, I received a chick stuffed animal from Harrod's in Knightsbridge and some Green and Black's praline mini eggs. I also got a wooden cross keychain from Los Angeles for participating.

When I saw the tag from Harrod's, I immediately thought of the song from Evita:

No, we wouldn't mind
Seeing her at Harrod's!
But behind the jewelery counter
Not in front!

I was also excited to get the Green and Black's chocolates, because everyone who got some was raving about it ... until I tasted them. They were quite bitter dark chocolate. I tended to compare them to swallowing a teaspoon of cocoa, and got rid of most of them by tempting people to try "a chocolate I got from overseas". After having hers, my mom requested a drink in order to wash the taste out of her mouth.

I decided to participate again this year, and was assigned to shop for a woman from Florida. I was happy not to have to mail to England again this year, because last year, the cost of postage was more than I paid for the present!

This weekend, I noticed that Mary C. posted her reaction to the gift I sent:

I got a wonderful package from Saskatchewan, Canada this morning!!

I've been spoiled. In the package, I found...

• Maple syrup in a beautiful maple leaf-shaped, glass bottle

• A pencil with white bunnies on it

• A beautiful bracelet made up of little crosses of all colors - very pretty

• Chocolate made with Saskatoon berries (I will taste those shortly!)

• An inspirational Easter book with stories, quotes, poems, traditions and other tidbits

• A beautiful Easter card

• A fish-shaped, frosted glass votive holder

• An 'I love JC' magnet

• And last, but definitely not least, postcards about Saskatchewan (which I knew nothing about). On the back of each postcard, missk took the time to write a little information about the place/building/plant pictured on the card. I loved it! I got to learn all sorts of neat things about SK. What a wonderful idea!

Thank you so much, missk!

I haven't received my gift yet, but I'll keep you posted. This just proves that good things can happen when you trust total strangers on the internet with your home address!