Every year for Christmas, my husband and I pick out a Christmas ornament together. We’ve been doing this since before we got married and it’s become a cherished part of our Christmas tradition.
We try to choose something that is representative of our year together, or at least an occasion during the year. And we try to find something that is not too fragile. There have been years, and this might be another one, where this ornament consumes the entirety of our minuscule Christmas budget. But even when money is tight we still find a way to make the holiday special and memorable.
Last year I was pregnant, and we came home with a pickle ornament. I’m quite sure this years ornament will be appropriately baby oriented. I’m also considering extending the tradition to include and ornament for Gem as well. If we get one every year, she’ll have a couple dozen by the time she gets her Masters Degree. {hope.}
Last quarter I had a really difficult time getting through all the required reading for my classes, so I thought this time I would take advantage of the long Christmas break to get a jump start on my reading for the winter quarter. As usual, things didn’t quite work out as I had planned.
It shouldn’t really matter because, as it turned out, I wasn’t ever able to scrape together enough time to get any reading done anyways, but nontheless… UPS officially sucks.
As soon as I had my classes finalized and confirmed which texts I would need I went shopping online and did quite a bit of comparison and actually ended up saving about $150 on the cost of the books. I ordered the books on Dec. 10, they were supposed to be delivered Dec. 20, it is now Jan 5 and customer service has no idea whether or not the package will be delivered today. They can’t even verify the location of the package. I’ve called UPS a few times over the past week, and it turns out that they can’t even hold the box at their facility and let me come pick it up. I am completely at the mercy of whenever they get around to dropping it off, there is no re-routing and there is no hold for pick up.
Of course the first week of school is generally not the most critical for having the appropriate texts, but the syllabus for one of my classes lists a chapter one quiz for tomorrow. ouch. Talk about hitting the ground running.
Normally, reading through the tracking information for a delivery is quite dull, but every once in a while you can find some interesting tidbits. Take a look at the journey my textbooks have been on along with my notes.
Location/Date/Local Time
Description
US
12/16/2008
5:50 P.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
I ordered the books on 12/10, but I’m willing to concede that the late start to delivery might pertain more to the company from whom I purchased the books than UPS
COLUMBIA, MO, US
12/16/2008
8:24 P.M.
ORIGIN SCAN
COLUMBIA, MO, US
12/16/2008
10:10 P.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
LENEXA, KS, US
12/17/2008
12:50 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
LENEXA, KS, US
12/17/2008
7:09 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
SALINA, KS, US
12/17/2008
11:00 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
SALINA, KS, US
12/17/2008
11:51 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
COMMERCE CITY, CO, US
12/17/2008
7:37 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
COMMERCE CITY, CO, US
12/18/2008
1:32 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN package seems to be zipping right along, no foreshadowing of trouble here
SALT LAKE CITY, UT, US
12/18/2008
10:27 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
SALT LAKE CITY, UT, US
12/18/2008
3:09 P.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
SEATTLE, WA, US
12/19/2008
8:23 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
SEATTLE, WA, US
12/19/2008
11:10 P.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN I live in Seattle, this package may be delivered on time tomorrow.
REDMOND, WA, US
12/19/2008
11:53 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
REDMOND, WA, US
12/20/2008
12:57 A.M.
DESTINATION SCAN Package is 12 miles away. It was supposed to be delivered to me on this date
REDMOND, WA, US
12/22/2008
4:14 P.M.
DESTINATION SCAN
REDMOND, WA, US
12/22/2008
4:37 P.M.
DESTINATION SCAN
Package has now been in Redmond for 4 days
REDMOND, WA, US
12/23/2008
11:26 A.M.
EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS’ CONTROL Ok, I don’t blame anyone for not driving this day, roads really were impassable
REDMOND, WA, US
1/2/2009
6:01 A.M.
THE BUSINESS WAS CLOSED TODAY. A DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE ON THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY / PACKAGE WILL BE DELIVERED NEXT BUSINESS DAY-NO SATURDAY GUARANTEE Package has now been in Redmond 15 days. The “Business” was the office for our apartments and it was in fact open on 1/2/09, just not at 6:01 A.M.
REDMOND, WA, US
1/5/2009
11:58 A.M
———————————-
THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN THE DESTINATION CITY
!?!
———————————————————————————-
Update:the package was finally delivered the next day. Luckily the shipper shrinkwrapped the books so they got here in decent shape evn though the box had been shredded in transit.
I didn’t put a tree up this year. I couldn’t deal with it.
Just the idea of driving 35 miles to our storage unit in Auburn to get the tree, and then shoving all the boxes we’ve already packed out of the way to put it up — only to have to pack everything back up again while we’re in the middle of packing up the house to move… It all felt like too much.
Besides, we were spending Christmas Day at my Mom’s house, anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I’m like a kid when it comes to Christmas, but I’m also under-rested, over-stressed and I have a living room full of boxes. Once the baby comes, we’ll decorate no matter how tired I am.
And then snow happened. Apocalyptic snow in Seattle terms. The entire city is shut down. So even when I started to think that maybe a little Christmas twinkle might be nice, it wasn’t happening.
Christmas morning I woke up to this:
While I was taking a nap on Christmas Eve, the husband braved the snow and hiked to the nearest drug store (which was nearly out of everything because of the snow shutdown) to buy their last box of lights and a few other items. After I fell asleep that night he wrapped the lights around our tripod easel, added in a trio of stuffed animals, two chocolate bars, and topped it off with a tiny stocking that contained a beautiful pair of earrings.
My guy is such a romantic.
What touched your heart this holiday season? And what was the sweetest gift you ever received?
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