So Christmas Is Done Now?

Oh wait, I just mean all the fuss surrounding it. I think I am done "doing" this season's X-mas. Let's try a list.

Right after Turkey Day I sat down with my laptop and selected my favorite 6 photos to go on the X-mas cards this year. 5 got used. Almost all the cards have been sent out. However, they shorted me about 5 envelopes, so I'm going to have to either use larger envelopes than 5x7 and figure out how  much extra postage that will require, or not send those last few cards out at all. 

Still thinking....

I bought the ham and it's in the fridge. Finally got a sliced boneless one for a change. We never manage to get all the meat off a bone-in one before it's too old. 

I also got the same thing as my contribution for the club party next Monday night. Then I looked at the list of who'd bring what. Mine is the third ham. There also will be a turkey breast, meatballs, and shrimp.  Interesting.... 

We also bring a gift under $10 to be wrapped for a door prize raffle thing. I finally settled for a painted glass bell, frosted green with winter scenes and a cheerful tinkle. It's been sitting on one shelf after another for years, untouched except for packing to be moved. Beautiful but deserving a more appreciative home. I wiped the dust off. Looks new. Since it's breakable, I decided it at least needed a box before the party committee wrapped it, along with some bubble wrap. We had the perfect box, one left from our security camera system. With a long standing family tradition of reusing boxes for packing gifts, then wrapping them and SURPIRSE! Then Oh, it's not that. Then Whew! Or Dang! So I made sure to take black marker and cross hatch across the box on all sides. Hopefully the recipient will figure it out before expecting to find their very own security camera. (Maybe the price limit should be a hint?)

All the handmade presents have been made. All the finishing touches have been done, packaging selected, wrapping on and name tags attached. The very last of those was completed yesterday afternoon, made while I was in the club teaching a workshop on doing the very same thing. I had to do one to show how, and located that one tiny hole in the present list for a person to send it to, found a proper box and got it packaged.

The last of the purchased gifts have been bought, wrapped, and name tagged.  That was completed this morning. I decided to put my 4:43 wake-up call (actually the dog's) to good use and started work on the ones I've been putting off. They have the most irregular shapes, are totally breakable, and being antiques, irreplaceable, at least on my current budget. I suppose similar items are out there. Bubble wrap had to be dragged out of storage, from where it sat in a huge box since... well, some of it likely since we moved. I discovered in that process that the green stuff we have is biodegradable. If some of you get items with clinging bits of crumbly brittle plastic, I apologize. The stuff is so brittle that picking up any piece creates a dozen instead. It clings to everything but whatever you are trying to pick it up with. Just think of it as a bonus?

Whether single presents or a family-full box of presents, periodic trips the post office have been made. Sure, I could have saved maybe a half gallon of gas if I'd made a single trip. But who can carry that much besides Santa? I gave up impersonating him as soon as my kids made the mistake of announcing they saw through the pretense and unwittingly gave up that bonus present each season. So boxes went out once a full family's goods were ready to go. Or in today's case, three families' presents, all going to one single address for redistribution. Just to make up for that, one family got two boxes. I thought it would go into one, but my memory of the size of the one I just wrote the address on and it's actual capacity did not match. Don't criticize! At least they are all getting there! One single snicker, and next year you'll be sorry!

One trip was to Fed Ex. I didn't have the right box. I ran out of "poison peanuts" for packing. Other excuses. I ordered this and that and the other... before I got the bill! Next year I'm going to go buy a GD box and packing peanuts if I need to. Or just choose less fragile presents. Or something. 

Another trip was delayed until I got a work address. The home has a front porch facing the street and I didn't want to risk porch pirates. Of course the person I was trying to get the work address from was ... working. Go figure.

By this afternoon the last package had a carrier, most with tracking numbers as well. I'm very familiar with long lines and some of the people in them. One fellow stood behind me until he finally got the information passports were at that glass door over there. I wished him a safe trip to wherever he was going. Another lady made a thing of wearing a mask until she had to talk to a postal employee, at which point she pulled the mask down from her nose. Huh? I've heard of nasal voices before but....

OK, it's Arizona, and covidiots abound, but that just puts too much emphasis on the "-idiots". What happens if that employee needs to read lips to aid comprehension? Are there classes in reading noses now? Also, do you have to get close enough to require bifocals, and a full hazmat suit?

The gift wrap, tape, tags, and scissors have been put back in the den. That's major progress for me. Often they still decorate the furniture till New Years. However, I can't brag too much. They are all on the wrappings tote, not in it. At least the tote is in the library and that door stays closed. Someday we'll replace that slightly broken window so we can leave that door open again. Someday. But at least the dining room table got cleared off for Turkey Day, even though most of that stuff is also cluttering the library floor. I'm sure it will be organized enough that we can access the far two sides of that room someday. Honest.

Today brought one last nice surprise. Almost a present. Yes, of course there is a story leading up to it! You had to ask?

 Rich has a terrible history of losing, breaking, or even getting his cell phones stolen. He has the capability of finding discarded (usually spiderweb cracking on their screens) old cells and reconfiguring them to at least use them on wifi. Of course that limits him mostly to having phone service only at home. While there are lots of wifi systems around, most of them either are password protected or require a purchase from the store providing it. Our library is only recently open again to actual people but still try to limit our presence to just a few minutes. Since he's a night owl, even the free services tend to be closed when he's awake.

The first time he had a phone lost, it got returned when it called my phone and the finders were honest. I learned that he put an "unlock" type message in it saying if found, call (my number.) It doesn't always work, even when the finder is honest. He knows he's had one stolen on several occasions, even knows who did it, but still is unable to recover his phone. But my phone doesn't always alert me to incoming calls. Now that I'm retired, I'm not on it a dozen times a day. I don't check for texts or alerts for voicemail messages either. Today happened to be an exception, as I was waiting for a voicemail message of that work address so I could mail the last package. I saw there was voicemail, and found 5 messages on it. 

"Hi, this is (name) from the Sun City Posse (our local volunteer cops) at (address). We found (described package & contents) over at (location). It has two cell phones in it and one says to call this number if found. You can return this call at (number) or come pick it up between (hours)." A quick glance at the clock gave me a few extra minutes to look the address up, pop in the car, and get there before they closed. Luckily they have great little red signs with arrows on, just in case you've never been there before, or in case all the extra roads which curve around the mortuary and through the cemetery in order to get there are at all confusing. Yes, they are all confusing. First thing I said was to praise them for their excellent signage.

Then they brought out two cell phones. Are these yours? No, I'm not the one missing a phone, and I know nothing about a second phone. My son is home sleeping and you close quick, so how do we do this? Do I bring him back to ID his stuff tomorrow? No. One of the phones was in a wallet contraption and had money and ID inside. I assured them none of those things were mine, and pretty sure since it was a woman's wallet not my son's either. Pretty decorations though.

They asked for more information, so I repeated the call as closely as I remembered it. Ahah! They then took those two phones back, brought out a blue fabric tote with bunches of straps, and looked at it, asking me to match the address and phone number on its attached note. I was me, so they handed it over. I figured once home that Rich would be happy enough to be awakened with the good news that I could do it and finally discharge my duties.

So. Now all that is done. The tree looks wonderful with its bubble lights, sitting on top of Steve's desk. I can finally relax. So is Christmas done now?