My giftee will have to wait a bit longer than some. Hopefully shipping on Saturday, but also need to be out of town, and am expecting kittens to arrive the usual way here at home too. Crazy timing, all this action.
If she wants out that bad she can punch her own holes!
Argh, tracked the package I’m sending and it seems to be stuck somewhere. Hopefully things will get better.
Shopping is getting done tomorrow, package will hopefully be sent Monday.
No cats are being sent, though.
It will be gasp my first Xmas shopping for the season!
:dubious: But are you ruling out hamsters?
According to the eleventy-billion tracking texts I’m getting from USPS, my giftee should be receiving The Package today–YAY!
Blimey, I think I’m the furthest away and I’m still at the ‘deciding what to get’ stage.
Well, okay, I have visited the local yarn shop…
All of my items are now purchased. Next step - package them up and off to the post office!
OMG! OMG! OMG!
Am I the first to get their package?
ThelmaLou sent me a lot of goodies!
First there are two white chocolate “aspirin”, for when I overdo it. There is a chocolate mold of the Alamo, which I’ll probably open as soon as I finish typing. There is an item I’ve never seen before, a round fabric tortilla warmer. Her note says it can help keep warm anything else that fits. For 2019 there is a calendar, and each month has the recipe for a tasty sounding mixed drink. And since I like dachshunds there is a cute mat with a really long dachshund. It says “We are best friends. Always remember that when you fall, I’ll pick you up. After I finish laughing.”
It’s all wonderful! Thank you so much, I am thrilled! I’ve been feeling blue for a while, this is a fantastic pick me up. ThelmaLou is the best!
PS I forgot to mention the postcard from a fancy chocolate shop, now all I have to do to get a free truffle is go to San Antonio.
Yay! I’m so glad you like your goodies. (The dachshund thing is a pillowcase…)
That tortilla warmer is an amazing thing. The directions say you can steam veggies in there—If you try that, please report.
I’m glad the things cheered you up. That means the world to me. 
P.S. I think I gave last year’s giftee a tortilla warmer, too. If I keep doing this long enough, everyone will have one!
I just bought my giftee their items! That was fun! Now to just get them packed up and sent out.
Started the bulk of the homemade portion of my gifts last night, so now I’ve got momentum.
I rarely plan out my crafts in great detail, so the “design” process is mostly fiddling aimlessly with colors and textures until stuff clicks. I’m currently working from home as a phone CSR so this is a terrific way to multitask. (I love customers who just wanna bitch endlessly! My hands are free to make more gift components, and they pay me the same either way.)
Now y’all get to speculate what I’m making, to keep yourselves occupied until Santa arrives.
purplehorseshoe - considering our discussion of whether to put holes in our boxes, is it a handmade model of Schrodinger’s cat?
Ack! Project is going more slowly than hoped. I gotta ship to where… double Ack!!! Christmas is 12 days long, right?!?
OK, mine is all sent!
Mine will be sent Friday. I just can’t get to the post office before then, but I have all Friday off.
Speaking of The Post Office. I took my package to the local Post Office/FedEX/Boutique place where I usually drop off prepaid amazon returns and the like. They also do US Post Office functions. The clerk there weighed my package and told me the US Postage would be $22! I said (in effect) WTF?!?
I went home and got on the USPS.gov site where I have ordered stamps and stuff in the past. (I ordered personalized first class stamps for my friend for Christmas that have her dog’s picture on them – so cute!) I got out my coffee scale and weighed the package, 2.2 lbs, put in Baker’s address, and voila! the postage was $11.75. I printed a label, took it to the post office, and shoved it in the package receiving slot without having to stand in line. I’m wondering now if that mini-post office is running a scam and if I should rat them out to the main post office.
Anyhoo, my point being, don’t underestimate the convenience of paying for postage online and printing up your own mailing label. You still probably have to drop it off at the post office (Unless you can spot the USPS worker in his/her truck and give it to him/her), but you won’t have to stand in line. Setting up an account at USPS.gov is very easy. (This is not a paid announcement.)
Carry on.
Yeah mine was $18 to send. Ah well, it’s on its way to the USA!
My point was that it didn’t cost $22 to send by US Mail; it cost $11.75 when I went online to the US Mail website and calculated the postage myself. The person at the mini-post office was intentionally or unintentionally sticking it to me. This package went within the continental United States.
You know what I like about this thread? Knowing that someone, somewhere is thinking about me and planning a gift for me. And someone doesn’t know it, yet, but I’ve been thinking about them and I’ve sent them off a package.
It was a quiet night on tonight’s shift so I’m on a roll. My giftee rattled off several items, one of which happens to be something I like to make. So, uh, hope you weren’t kidding about liking that one thing on your list!