Myspace Christmas Graphics


Word of the Day

Wishcount - The price at which I'm willing to buy a certain item.


DD Daughter on Christmas Morning - 1980

11 Days and a WAKE UP and it'll be Christmas!

After breakfast, HTP helped me figure out how much it would cost to mail out my packages this year. I had everything packed up and ready to go. Parcel post. USPS. I had originally planned to pack up everything in flat-rate Priority mail boxes. HTP talked me out of it. Too expensive he told me. So, I went out and bought boxes and packed up all my out-of-town packages. This morning, we discovered that HTP was wrong. I was right. Only...now I had to dig up Flat-rate Priority Mail boxes. Since I mail a lot of boxes to our military in Iraq, I do have a supply of these boxes. I needed ten. I had five that were the right size. HTP went out to the post office to get me more boxes...and stamps while he was at it.

While he was getting boxes, I un-packed and re-packed five of my ten boxes. And then I went to the computer to order and print out mailing labels. Neat-o thing that. I hear you can print out the military labels as well as the customs form? Could that be? No standing in line at the post office for me anymore. Not if I can print out my own labels and postage like that. So it took a while because I had to set up an account but I guess that once I've got an account, I'm in.

HTP got back with my boxes. I had my labels all printed out. And, I un-packed and re-packed the last five of my boxes. Scissors, please. I had to cut out my labels. And then... I ran out of clear packing tape. How was I supposed to know that we didn't have any packing tape left in the house? Poor planning? I think not. If I hadn't had to waste all the tape, taping up boxes that I didn't even end up using, I would have had plenty of tape. It's all HTP's fault that I ran out of tape.

I jumped into the car and went out to the nearest PostNET store and bought packing tape. It was here that I discovered that after I have everything ready to go, I can just drop and go. My packages, my Christmas cards, everything. No charge. So, I got back to the house and taped and cut and taped and finally I had all the labels adhered to my packages. On to my next task. Sticking stamps onto the Christmas cards. Thank God that someone finally came up with stamps that you don't have to lick! Within minutes, I had all my packages stowed in the trunk of my car along with all my Christmas cards...except...the one that goes to South America. I'll have to go to the post office afterall. That card needs to be metered. I don't have a meter machine. People in South America are avid stamp collectors. I learned long ago that if I want my letters to get to their destination, I can't use postage stamps.

I plan to meet up with Arizona daughter to go shopping this afternoon. I'm going to drop all my packages and Christmas cards off at the PostNET store on my way. If I have any energy left after shopping, I'll continue on with my baking. Brown Sugar Cookies? Too much effort if I'm tired. Maybe peanut brittle and fudge. I should be able to handle that.

But while I'm waiting for Arizona Daughter's call, I decided that I might as well keep busy. It's not like time is going to hold still on me. I've got so little time as it is to get ready for Christmas. I put up the tree. I have what can only be labeled a Charlie Brown tree. The year after HTP and #1 son had the exclusive responsiblity of putting up our old tree (huge and heavy), we decided to get a smaller tree. And so my Charlie Brown tree entered the picture. It's important to let any artificial tree sit for a while undecorated. This way you can tweak it everytime you happen to walk by it until it starts to look the way you'd like to see it. I'm afraid this poor tree will never actually look the way I'd like it to look but one does what one can with what one has. Half the lights on the poor tree aren't working this year. I have no idea why but I guess I can spring for a new string of lights to replace the old ones. The tree has fiber optic lights too but they don't twinkle very much anymore. Oh well...it's a tree.

I put our old Santa topper on top of the tree. Tradition. The kids would hate for me to replace him. He's a bit tacky and worn but he's ours. They'd hate for me to buy all new ornaments to decorate the tree. Tradition. Every year I gave each of my children a brand new ornament. I still do. My poor Charlie Brown tree can't hold all the ornaments that we've collected over the years. I can only put out a few old favorites each year.

I saw a new tree scarf the other day and absolutely fell in love with it. With no hesitation at all, I didn't buy it. Tradition. The kids expect to see the old tree scarf that I made to use for HTP and my very first Christmas together. We didn't have much money in those days. I bought some inexpensive red furry fabric and made a tree scarf with the idea that I'd someday replace it with a real tree scarf. That'll never happen. Tradition is good.

Only one more bit of tradition for today...besides the baking. I put out the stockings that I made for each of my children and now for each of my girls' spouses. I still only have three brass reindeer hangers to hold the stockings with care. No fireplace in this house so I hang them from the breakfast bar. We never use that breakfast bar for anything else. It makes a great mantle if you don't have a fireplace. Maybe I'll look for three more stocking hangers today while I'm out. Traditions are good but I figure that GI Joe and JT need their own stocking hangers and maybe I should make sure to buy three stocking hangers. I imagine some day #1 son will bring home a spouse.

Murphyism of the Day

Law of Socioeconomics

In a hierarchical system, the rate of pay for a given task increases in inverse ratio to the unpleasantness and difficulty of the task.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of
people." --Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.