Me Active, Santa Asleep

BUSY!  But, finally, at long last, I've got all the Christmas packages sent. I spent several hours in the morning selecting which wrapping paper to use (I have reams left from last year), deciding for most of them simply green and red tissue. That's mostly to cut down on the weight as much as possible, but also, I kind of think it looks homey and old-fashioned, in a pleasant way. 

When I was a kid, my mother almost always wrapped all the presents in tissue paper. I figure that was because 1.) the big onslaught of fancy this and that, including wrapping paper, hadn't happened yet and 2.) Mom was frugal and, as today, tissue was less expensive. Aha! And I just remembered that our gifts would be tied with yarn! I doubt if Mom ever went out and bought the curly kind of ribbon, if it even existed then. I made my own gift tags with white paper and various types of Christmas stickers, too.

I also finally finished the Christmas cards I made for some people. What a chore! The personalized little rhymes were easy enough, but stamping the card stock (I have plain white heavy note paper) was problematic. It was very difficult to get the image right--the Christmas tree, for instance, would fade out here and there. However, I finally did them. I took them to the P.O. in the morning and the packages in the afternoon.

There was a long line there, out the door and down the sidewalk. It took 35 or so minutes for me to get in and when I finally got them mailed, it was almost 4:00. I had thought I'd go over to Office Max to get a desk calendar, but it would have been after 5:00 and dark by the time I got home, so I just postponed for today . 

I had texted Suzanne about the lease thing, but she didn't get one, either. Neither did Chuck, across the way, so we're all puzzled. She rang my bell and we stood outside and talked for a half hour or so. What we think is this: They're sending those who pay more (because they're more recent renters) the lease because they want to keep them. They're not offering this to the long-timers, because they pay quite a bit less. I think Suzanne, here 23 years, pays $75 less than I do and Chuck's (28 years) rent is probably less than hers.  

Last evening, I got a call from Big Island Candies, a favorite of son, Mike (he owns a house in Hawaii), where I had ordered gift cards for both my boys. I had asked if they ship to Tokyo and Singapore and yes, they do, but this woman wanted to tell me the postage costs there: over sixty bucks, no matter what size the order! That is simply outrageous, so I rescinded the orders. Damn! I'm going to email them what happened, think of something else, and tell them Santa fell asleep on the job.