My husband and I went Christmas shopping this afternoon, finishing up on those few items for the families. I then proceeded to listen to Mannheim Steamroller and wrap presents – two presents for the second time. I’ll explain.
Last weekend I had my two sister’s over (15 year old and a 6 year old). We went shopping for gifts for our parents. We also wrapped said gifts, rather nicely I might add. We placed them under the Christmas tree (which happens to be sitting on TOP of the dining room table, otherwise our dog Poe would ingest every last ornament). I don’t know when it happened, or who caused it. I was getting the table ready for dinner the day after my sisters went home and went to slide the gift over to make room, but it wouldn’t budge! Upon further investigation, juice had been spilled ON THE PRESENTS! I was livid. The wrapping paper left a stamp on the table when I was able to pry it off, a perfect little stay-behind reminder that a present once sat there. It was horrid. A gift that was on top of that one also suffered. They both needed to be unwrapped and re-wrapped – lucky the items inside were not damaged. My husband used his muscles to get most of the paper print (circles of red and green and little sguigglies) off of the table, but there’s still some left. I’ll try to remove more of it eventually.
This leads me to yet another Christmas tale of misfortune. I knew I was running out of mailing time, so I finally got a friend of mine’s present(s) put into a box. I like to include one of my random handwritten letters as I find them entertaining – they are much like my blog posts [random and unorganized] but with scribbles as I don’t have a “backspace” button. I finished my letter, made sure everything was packed nice enough not to get damaged, printed a lovely mailing label and stuck on my return address label. Next stop, post office. I also had some Christmas cards from the previous night. I’ve delayed too long and tried to get as many done as I could, but my hand just isn’t used to writing those Christmas cards! I got five or six done and called it a success. These I piled and took with me.
I was running late for work (late in the sense that I couldn’t make ANY stops or I would indeed be late) and it was also a little chilly, so I decided I’d just drop the cards in the mail when I went to pay for the package. It’s a good thing I waited. I would have dropped the cards in the mail container…. with no stamps. And there’s no getting those envelopes back once they are eaten by the blue monster. Fast forward to after work where I am arriving at the Post Office. They have this marvelous self-services station where you can use a touch screen and print the postage for your package, get delivery confirmation, the works. I gladly chose to do this method instead of waiting in a line that would probably take one year of my life away. Insert credit card, pay for priority shipping, drop package in big slot on the wall, and I’m out of there. I wake up at 6ish the next morning with my brain yelling at me – “You put the postage and delivery confirmation label OVER the mailing address”. Ugh. Are you serious? I reflect back on the previous night, realizing the machine only asked me for the zip code of the destination, not the entire address. And I went and put the blasted thing over the real address. How is it going to get there now? I called the Post Office when they opened, hoping to catch the package. Of course there was no, “Let me see if I can find it”, just a bored tone on the other end and a rude comment of “Well, if there is no address, they won’t know where to take it.” You think? I hadn’t thought of that – in fact, that’s not the reason I’m calling at all….. Well, hope still remains as the receiving post office may lift the label up and see that there is the address hiding beneath. I have my finger and toes crossed.
I’m hoping for some snow to come my way, but I’m not holding my breath. The weather has been really odd. Last year this time I’m sure I was already shoving snow off of my car and maybe even breaking through some ice. 50s and 40s just don’t cut it for Christmas weather. It’s chilly, and the wind can make me feel very cold, but where’s my snow? If YOU stole it, please send it back to me.
I love giving gifts. I have such a hard time keeping them secret because I want to give them to the person right away so they can enjoy it – but then they wouldn’t have anything on Christmas and that’s not very fun. I keep trying to get my husband to take his gift early, but he refuses. And can you believe it? He won’t let me open mine either. 🙁 I’m 95% done with the buying of gifts. I still want to give my husband one more, and maybe my parents one just from me but we shall see. For now I need to keep working on the wrapping. I have 10 or so still to go. At this rate, I won’t be done in time. I better pick up the pace. Turn on Mannheim Steam roller Christmas music and commence to wrapping again. Joy!
I actually had a similar experience, I threw a letter in the blue box, suddenly realizing I hadn’t put a stamp on it. Thankfully I realized that and didn’t have to be anywhere so I talked to them right away and got my letter back
Lucky!