Holiday of Misdeliveries

This holiday arrived sooner than expected and brought with it a comedy of errors.

I spent every evening for a solid week searching for a spirograph set for my niece, before finally accepting that the stores in town were completely sold out. Admitting defeat, I bought a set online for an exorbitant fee. In the meantime I found gifts for both my dad and Mich, which I carefully wrapped and in Mich's case, included little notes since there were specific memories attached to each of her gifts. When I went to mail their packages, I suffered from sticker-shock when I was quoted $45 each to guarantee a Christmas delivery (this did not include the extra fees). I wisely decided not to choose that option since the gifts apparently would not have arrived on time, and actually have yet to arrive as of this writing.

 

In another humorous event, gifts that were sent to me ended up in Brooklyn due to a snafu in completing the address field. Apparently my house number is a zip code in Brooklyn.

This is perfectly reasonable since my card to mom was returned to sender because I failed to complete her address on the envelope. During our Christmas morning phone call, I was questioned why everyone else received a card and not my mom.

I'm assuming the shortage of cards we received this year is due to the same reason I'm still waiting for my Aunt Patty's card. Patty sent me a message that her card was returned because she sent it to my old address so she needed my new one. Of course, I received this message more than a week after I had sent her a card so obviously it takes more than seven days to send a simple card when I could have driven it there in seven hours.

Then the gifts that did arrive on time had their own issues. Dad called a few days before Christmas to tell me that some of my gifts had arrived. He then asked me about my niece's jewelry which raised a red flag for me: How did he know I had sent her jewelry? After interrogating him, I discovered that though I had paid Amazon to wrap the gifts and added a holiday message, the detailed receipt for the items was inside the shipping box. 

Then there were the personal deliveries. I was brave and bought one of James' gifts after work on Christmas Eve Eve. Deciding to keep it hidden in my car, I was in a panic the next morning as I prepared to leave for an early appointment and faced the possibility that James would discover the gift. Because I was braving the mall on Christmas Eve, James asked me to pick him up after my appointment so he could go with me. As James took Bartle into the backyard, I frantically moved the awkwardly large and heavy gift from my car to my office. Of course, I smashed the box into the door knob, puncturing a lovely hole into the box and forcing the object back into me. Amazingly enough, he was none the wiser, though he did ask about the hole when I waddled the box into the living room on Christmas morning.

Becky, Erin, and I typically exchange gifts during Becky's birthday dinner, which was canceled this year following the snow storm. Becky and I eventually exchanged gifts when we saw The Hobbit, surprisingly enough, on Becky's birthday. Erin has been balancing car trouble, holiday demands, sick children, and her own ailment, so we never found the time to connect and exchange gifts even though we work in departments that are next to each other. Finally on New Year's Eve, Erin and I were able to exchange gifts.

Though I'm still waiting on three packages to be delivered, the family calendar, and have been told that a multitude of cards are still in-the-mail, I would say this holiday will go down in history as the holiday of misdeliveries.