More Shipping Woes; More Holiday Baking

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If I may return to the subject of shipping woes, the package I sent to Paul’s sister still hasn’t budged. I signed up for email AND text alerts, since some commenters reported having success with that, but to no avail. It took from the 11th to the 15th to travel 20 minutes away, and nothing has happened since the 15th.

The gift cards I ordered on the 8th to give to UPS and USPS have not arrived, either; they were shipped USPS on the 9th, and the tracking info shows nothing since the shipment notification. Target still shows them as “arriving by the 18th,” even though today is the 22nd.

We got two Christmas cards in the mail yesterday. One was postmarked the 17th, which would be a normal sort of mailing time for this time of year, but the other was postmarked the 11th, so it took ten days to get to us, which would not be normal, even for this time of year.

One of Henry’s Christmas presents was shipped USPS on December 11th, and hasn’t been seen since. It’s fine, he’ll be okay with getting a wrapped notification that it’s coming sometime soon, but I’m worried it’ll be lost.

Rob said he read somewhere that to save time, the post office has stopped scanning as many things? I don’t know if that’s true, or if it even makes sense (i.e., maybe the scanning is inherent to the way they process packages, as opposed to being an extra step), but it gives me some hope. Rob said what he read is that people were refreshing the tracking page, which would show the package at a standstill, and then suddenly the package would just arrive. Well, isn’t that just EXACTLY what I’d like to happen with Paul’s sister’s package.

I keep finding my mind drifting to what if it’s just LOST? What if it burst open, the contents strewn throughout the package-processing system?? And then I turn my mind back to THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW. And: I WILL DEAL WITH THAT IN REALITY IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE THE CASE, AND NOT MENTALLY IN ADVANCE.

Back to the more cheerful subject of holiday baking. Yesterday I was less zealous than the day before, but I made Triple Layer Cookie Bars and Flourless Fudge Cookies (Elizabeth: “I want to eat these for every meal”). Today I am thinking I’ll make Christmas Crack(er) and fudge/penuche.

Unexpected Holiday Baking Fun

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I realized yesterday to my dismay that I HAVE NOT BEEN WEARING MY CHRISTMASSY EARRINGS. Normally I start wearing them on December 1st! And I just somehow completely forgot until December 20th! I am not going to panic or freak out or mourn those lost days, I am just going to REALLY ENJOY wearing Christmas earrings every day from now through Christmas. And also I am going to wear glitter eyeshadow each day, to make up for the lost festivity.

It turned out, to my complete surprise, that I DID suddenly want to do a bunch of holiday baking, so it’s a good thing I bought those four pounds of sale butter on my last shopping trip! I always THINK I like and miss baking, until I am actually at the point of baking, at which point I feel uninterested and overwhelmed, so it seemed unlikely that that would change—but it DID. What happened was, I remembered how extremely happy and festive it felt last year to drop off a little plate of mixed cookies at the house of our neighbor, an older woman who lives alone. It was after I went to a cookie swap, and I ended up with kind of a lot of cookies, and I thought it would be fun to give her one each of the eight or nine kinds, and it WAS fun.

No cookie swap this year, but I still wanted to give her some cookies. And once I had that motivating seed of an idea, I built it up to myself encouragingly: I don’t have to make LOTS of kinds of cookies! Even ONE kind of cookie would be fine if it was a nice festive one like gingersnaps! And I don’t have to make tray after tray: I can make ONE tray and freeze the rest as cookie-dough balls to bake another time! And if, after making the gingersnaps, I feel like making one other kind of cookie or bar, well then how nice! But no pressure!

So I made the gingersnaps, and then I thought it was a good moment to try a recipe I got from a friend for Double Delicious cookie bars: it looked pretty quick and easy, and I’d already bought the ingredients, so why not? And then when those were in the oven, I was thinking that really MY favorite cookie was oatmeal scotchies, and if I were going to spend a lot of time baking, wouldn’t it be nice to end up with a bunch of my favorite cookies and/or cookie dough balls in the freezer for a future day? And oatmeal scotchies aren’t particularly festive-looking, but they’d look nice/assorted on a plate with ginger snaps and cookie bars. So I made oatmeal scotchies.

Well, and that was apparently the tipping point: seeing that second large ziploc bag of frozen dough-balls in the freezer on top of a large ziploc bag of cookie bars must have set off some sort of canning/preserving-related instinct. So then I made mint brownies (Paul: “Oh, when you said mint brownies I was hoping you meant the ones with the crackly mint topping“—so I’ve booted him into the sun). And then I tried to go play Candy Crush or browse Twitter, but I was restless and felt like doing something else, and I realized what I felt like doing was ADDING MORE BAGS OF TREATS TO THE FREEZER, so I made Homemade Nutter Butters, which are one of the best cookies I have EVER eaten and I don’t even think of myself as particularly liking peanut butter cookies. (I don’t make them in peanut shapes, because that’s a giant pain that adds a lot of time/fuss to a recipe that is already a little time-consuming and fussy; I just make them round. And if you have a #70 disher ((the small Oxo cookie scoop is a #70 disher)) you can use that to make the cookie balls and also to measure the filling, and it’ll come out just about perfect if you have eaten the right amount of dough, which is about five cookies’ worth.)

And after I made those, I didn’t have time to make anything else before bed, so instead I made a list of all the things I might choose from to make today: fudge! penuche! some sort of bark! those pretzel/Kiss/M&M things, which add such a nice little spot of color and interest! Christmas Crack, which I’ve never made but have heard people rave about! those little round cookies that have a Hershey Kiss or mini Reese’s pushed into the center! No-Bakes! Flourless Fudge Cookies! I am having a lot of unexpected fun with this.

Grocery Store Report

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It was comforting to hear that so many of you are also having shipping woes. I think it’s easier when everyone knows it’s happening to pretty much everyone, and this way we can all start prepping everyone that their gifts may be late. I emailed Paul’s sister and sent her the tracking number so she too can stare at it sitting twenty minutes from my house.

I went to the grocery store this morning. I’d been intending another curbside pick-up, but the curbside grocery store is still claiming not to have ground beef or chicken, and they say they have milk but last time didn’t have it when I got there, and also last time they forgot to put my freezer bags in the car so I had to drive over an hour round-trip to go back for them, and anyway I just went in person to my local grocery store instead. I do think it makes sense to use even patchy curbside in order to reduce the time spent breathing grocery store air, but on this particular day the hassle of building an online cart, putting in all the comments, driving an hour, and STILL having to go in person as well—it seemed like too much.

Still almost no regular cleaning supplies, though they DID have Clorox Clean-up spray, but I already have enough of that so didn’t buy any. Oh! That reminds me to tell you: when I went to pick up Edward’s prescription at Target, they had LYSOL SPRAY. Like, the tall linen-scented disinfecting spray cans of it, maybe ten or so cans just sitting there on the shelf like no big. I stood there, frozen, staring, stunned, and then my brain actually started saying fussily “Oh, but the caps are chipped” LIKE THAT MATTERS, and I overrode my brain and bought one. I brought it home and put it on the counter so I could gaze at it for awhile before putting it away.

Back to the grocery store. The only thing I wanted but couldn’t get was cherry jam, and that is not something that’s consistently in stock even in normal times, so I just put it back on the list for next time. Oh, and I looked for Ben & Jerry’s Cinnamon Roll ice cream because a friend mentioned it’s her favorite and I wanted to try it, and they didn’t have it, but this was not surprising because she’d mentioned it in the context of not having been able to find it for ages; I bought Oat of This Swirled instead: brown sugar ice cream with oatmeal cookies, OKAY!!

They had THREE kinds of holiday tea! I didn’t buy the gingerbread one because I don’t normally like things that are gingerbread-flavored, but I bought the peppermint bark and the egg nog kinds. I have low expectations, but I love having Holiday Coffee/Tea even if I don’t actually like it.

They also had Reese’s peanut butter chips, which I hadn’t been able to get in-store OR curbside/shipped from Target. And they had Grape-Nuts, which I hadn’t been able to get curbside or shipped from Target. They had the little red grapefruit fruit cups Edward likes. They had plenty of ground beef and chicken and milk. They had Cabot Pepper Jack cheese, which they haven’t had on my last two trips. Butter was on sale so I got four pounds, in case I suddenly start doing some holiday baking.

Packages in Limbo

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I mailed a USPS priority package to Paul’s sister on December 11th, and it was supposed to arrive on December 15th, which was this past Tuesday, three days ago. I thought just now to check to make sure it had arrived—and it has not, and it is marked as “arriving late.” The last time it was checked in was on the 15th, the same day it was supposed to have arrived at its final destination, when it instead arrived AT OUR LOCAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN THE NEXT CITY TWENTY MINUTES AWAY. Its status is “in transit to the next facility,” even though there isn’t the usual progress line about it leaving the local distribution center, so I think it’s more likely it’s still sitting there 20 minutes from my house. This is a little stressful/frustrating. I am trying not to think about it. It will not help to worry about it: there is nothing I personally can do about that package at this point. I’m extra glad I mailed it two weeks before Christmas, because it’s been traveling a week so far and MAY NOT EVEN HAVE LEFT THE STATE

I heard on the radio this morning that I am definitely not alone in shipping woes, and in fact am luckier than most because I only have a couple of packages in limbo. But I wish those didn’t include THIS PARTICULAR package: if it were something for Paul or one of the kids or my brother or my parents, I would just print out a picture of the item and wrap that, and they’d have the actual item soon enough. (I’m probably going to have to do that with some used D&D magazines I ordered from eBay for Henry, which shipped on the 11th and have been stuck at a processing facility since the 13th.) But Paul’s sister is the one where I feel like what we send is MOST of her Christmas, and so it’s important to me that it be there in time for Christmas. Well. There is nothing I can do about the package at this point except go back in time and mail it EVEN EARLIER. Or send it UPS instead, which didn’t even occur to me to do. And I wish I’d insured it.

I’m also trying not to order anything by mail right now that I don’t need sooner than Christmas, to avoid clogging the system still further.

Gift Ideas for Medical Staff: Follow-Up

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I am so glad and grateful that Beforetimes Swistle was the kind of person who couldn’t resist buying that cute box of Christmas cards or that cute roll of wrapping paper even when technically she already had more cards and paper than she needed, because that means Pandemic Swistle did not have to go out to buy either cards or paper. I am down to the scraps of wrapping paper, but frankly probably still have enough cards for another whole year.

Thank you for all your input on gifts for medical staff—even, unexpectedly, thank you to the people who ignored the pretty specific instruction to NOT tell us what gets thrown in the trash: in normal times, I don’t want to hear that a team tosses all homemade food because they’re assuming their patients live in disgusting squalor or whatever, but IN A PANDEMIC it turns out I DO want to hear that some medical establishments have PANDEMIC rules that mean they are required to throw away food. (And the TONE of those two types of comments is so different that the making of the latter type of comment doesn’t feel like it breaks the rule against the making of the former type, and it is so pleasing to have a comments section intuitive enough to instinctively understand that.) I absolutely don’t want to spend eighty benevolent dollars on Kringles just to have the Kringles literally thrown away, and was glad to feel saved from making that potential disheartening mistake.

But…is there no better way to handle this, considering we are NOT seeing any evidence that the virus spreads by two people each taking a slice of danish an hour apart? IS that really different than two people picking up a snack-size bag of cookies an hour apart? Wouldn’t “standing around a basket of individually-wrapped items” be exactly the same as “standing around a plate of cookies,” and wouldn’t we just avoid both of those standing-around situations? And aren’t we talking about trained medical professionals who know not to touch and breathe on every portion before selecting one? Must we really THROW AWAY perfectly safe and edible food? “No one gets anything and the food is thrown into the trash” doesn’t seem like the FIRST AND ONLY solution that should occur to us. I don’t have any sort of medical degree, but I can think of two possibilities:

1. Have one trusted staff person designated to carefully wash hands and wear gloves and then divide up brought-in communal food into baggies or onto plates or whatever, so that it is now individually-portioned.

2. If for some reason that can’t work (I can’t think of any reason that can’t work), AT THE BARE MINIMUM an entire food item could be sent home with one person, and then the next entire food item could be sent home with another person. It could be done by drawing names out of a hat, and could be considered a Fun Pandemic Holiday Raffle.

 

Anyway. That’s kind of a lot of attitude in those paragraphs, considering how much fun I had choosing individually-portioned things, and how happy I was with what I chose:

I started with a base of individual coffee drinks: four 4-packs of canned Starbucks drinks, one pack of each flavor available: espresso & cream, espresso & cream light, black, and mocha. I considered the 4-packs of glass-bottled Starbucks drinks, which I find very satisfying (they come in more treat-like flavors than the canned drinks, and I use the empty bottles as small vases), but I felt uneasy about transporting breakable stuff / bringing glass into a hospital, so I just went with the cans.

Having four packs of drinks made me feel inclined to choose four packs of snacks. I went for a variety of types: salty Gardetto’s / Chex Mix / Bugles mix, sweet Pepperidge Farm cookie packets, sweet fudge-dipped mini Oreo packets, and hearty Caramel Cashew trail mix packets. I was fairly limited by what was available for curbside pick-up, but that kept me from getting bogged down in choices. I placed the order, went and picked it up, and brought it with us to the appointment. It all fit in two of the handled paper bags the curbside grocery store has been using, so I could write “Happy Holidays to Pediatric GI from the Thistles!” on both in Sharpie marker. I gave the bags to one of the nurses, figuring (1) she knows where food for the whole department is supposed to go, and (2) if for some reason the food CAN’T be shared department-wide, the nurses are the people we spend the most time with and have gotten to know the best, so I’d most want them to have it.

It turned out that our hospital doesn’t have a policy about non-individually-packaged food: I heard the nurses discussing an apparently impressive cookie plate a co-worker had brought in. But since they were also talking about how they were going to get through everything before it went bad, I was still very glad I’d brought individually-packaged, shelf-stable stuff: it can easily be set aside for a time of fewer cookie plates. It’s the kind of idea I may want to continue to use after the pandemic—especially since it really was fun to CHOOSE things.

Gift Ideas for Medical Staff

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Last year I wanted to bring some sort of holiday gift to the pediatric GI department where Edward gets his Remicade infusions. We are there for hours and hours each time, and it used to be every 7 weeks but now it’s every 5 weeks which is basically once a month, and it’s been years now so we’ve gotten to feel warmly about everyone there.

But I couldn’t decide what to bring. The nurses are always talking (amongst themselves, I mean, not to us, but the nurse’s station is right outside the door so we can hear them) about how they have to eat better and exercise more, and also I imagine that MOST people who bring holiday gifts would bring treats? Perhaps I am wrong. But I know Paul’s office is always just FULL of treats in December. (But probably not this year, with the pandemic.) I would love to bring treats if they’d love to have treats, but I don’t want to BURDEN them with treats. And in a pandemic there is the additional issue of whether they’d feel comfortable with food brought in, even though (1) the overwhelming evidence seems to be that food does not pose a threat, and (2) I’d be bringing something made by someone else—like treats from a bakery or grocery store.

Anyway, last year I got overwhelmed and did nothing, and felt at peace with that decision until AFTER our December appointment, when I wished I’d powered through it and done something, ANYTHING. Holiday tasks feel overwhelming beforehand and wonderful afterhand, in my experience: like, even when it’s NOT in a pandemic I always dither and fret about the mail carrier, and I always feel SO HAPPY AND GLAD after I’ve put the gift card in the mail box. So I made a note for this year to DO SOMETHING FOR THE PEDIATRIC GI DEPARTMENT.

Here are the things I’ve considered:

1. Grocery store fruit tray. For $20-25, I can get a nice big tray of assorted fruit, which should feel somewhat treat-like while still fitting into most people’s eating plans, and without adding to the possible overload of cookies/bars/etc.; I could add a container of caramel dip and a container of chocolate dip, or anything else I see sold by the fruit trays, to increase the treatness for anyone who would LIKE to increase the treatness. Downside: fruit this time of year may not be terrific and it doesn’t last long; also, I’d have to go to the grocery store to get it (I’m okay with that, but in a pandemic anything “going inside a store” has to count as a downside).

2. An order from O&H Danish Bakery. A dear friend sent me two of their Kringles, and they were SO DELICIOUS AND FUN. They’re big oval ring-shaped danish, and you cut off pieces and eat them. And they freeze gorgeously: I cut a bunch of pieces and put them in baggies in the freezer before my children could locust everything up, and I took out a piece every afternoon to have with my coffee, and it was glorious. Anyway, I could send the department a few Kringles, or there are also other holiday packages involving, say, two Kringles and two coffee cakes, things like that. Downsides: could possibly be adding to burden of too many sweets/treats; also, rather expensive. Upside: they’d be shipped, so they’d arrive as a surprise and I wouldn’t have to be there! (I don’t like the part where I’m bringing in things and people might feel they have to make a big deal about it, and in the case of our Remicade appointments different people keep coming into the room so maybe they’d ALL say something, and it’s so agonizing.)

3. An order from See’s Candies. This is another of my own favorite special treats, and I feel like I could put together a nice selection of chocolates and candies. Downsides: again, expensive and adds to potential overburden of sweets. Upside: again, SHIPPED, so I don’t have to be there; also, they keep for a fairly long time, so they wouldn’t have to be eaten at the same time as any other possible resident treats.

4. A bunch of assorted things that I can get with Drive-Up at Target: basically the pandemic care package concept. Like, what about some of those four-packs of bottles/cans of Starbucks coffee? And a big parcel of those snack-size chip bags! And some packs of festive Milano and/or Pepperidge Farm cookies! And some hand lotion! And so on. Upside: this would be super fun for me, and everything would KEEP really well in case they didn’t want it now. Downside: heavy/bulky to lug through the hospital; also, I was estimating the cost and it would be comparable to the Kringles/See’s ideas, but for something that doesn’t seem like it has the same impact.

 

Do you have other ideas? And I hope we can all remember that, as when discussing teacher gifts, no one likes to hear their careful and lovingly-intended ideas called “crap” or “junk” or  “a waste” or whatever, and that too much of that kind of talk makes people just give up and do nothing instead, and with bad unfestive feeling about it too. And also, we should all keep in mind that there is no single Right Answer that meets every department everywhere: for example, some departments get too many sweets and feel burdened, while others hardly get any and would greatly enjoy getting more. So if for example you are or know a nurse, perhaps you could list things your/their department would love to receive, rather than dishearteningly listing all the stuff that gets thrown in the trash immediately. And if you have brought gifts to medical staff in the past, I hope you will feel free to say what you decided on, without this cautionary paragraph making you feel self-conscious that other people will criticize it.

 

Follow-up!

MAILED IT

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I am feeling high with relief to have dealt with one of the biggest tasks of the holiday season: getting Paul’s sister’s Christmas package completed and mailed. It was ready a week ago, except for items from ONE delivery that still hadn’t shipped two weeks after I’d placed the order. I finally emailed the company, and they didn’t answer my email but the package shipped the next day, so. Anyway, those items arrived today, I swooped the box into the house and opened and it and put the items directly into Paul’s sister’s box and taped it up and took it to the post office, where I was prepared to come back another day if it was too crowded. It DID look crowded, but I’m glad I decided to look inside, because as I got out of my car THREE of the cars in the parking lot left, and two more people were coming out of the building as I was going in, and when I got inside I was first in line. I haven’t been inside the post office in a long time; there were big clear plastic sheets hanging from ceiling to desktop, and there were taped-off waiting areas on the floor to keep people six feet apart, and there were signs asking people to please keep themselves, other customers, and the postal workers safe. When I left there were three people in line, so my timing was exquisite.

It was about $40 to mail the package, but we are not even going to think about it. Honestly it’s a bargain, if I picture how much I would want to be paid to take that box to where Beth lives. And when I was calculating the price online before heading out, I experimented with how much would it cost if I added another pound, if I subtracted another pound—and even when I suggested taking out a pound and a half the price didn’t shift, so I think I was just in a size/weight range that was going to be about $40 whether or not I took out the package of candy. So I put IN another package of candy and felt happy.

ANYWAY IT IS DONE. IT IS MAILED. It is OFF my dining room table and off my time-sensitive to-do list and out of my hands and on its way to her, and even with increased mailing delays should have enough time to get there. I wish I could have sent it a week ago but it’s fine, it’s FINE.

Annual Calendar Post, 2021 Calendar Edition!

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IT IS TIME.

Isn’t it odd, thinking of us at this time last year, browsing calendars with no idea what 2020 was going to be like? My calendar is full from January until mid-March with normal stuff; then it is full of crossed-out things from mid-March through April (with more cross-outs later as we cancelled later and later stuff, but the real THICKET of cross-outs is the first 4-6 weeks); then it is full of contract-tracing-type information (when/where we went, and at what time).

Well! We shall hope for better for 2021. Or at least part of 2021. Or anyway it’s fun to have a new picture to look at each month!

I use my calendar to keep track of my schedule, so I need one with squares to write in, but I don’t need one of those “”””MOM”””” calendars that have no room for the picture because they’re all squares. I look for a nice balance of picture on top, squares on the bottom, so that’s my screening process for these choices. LET’S GO.

[I might continue adding to this post, but am posting it NOW because calendars were dropping from “Only 9 left!” to “Only 7 left!,” etc., AS I WAS ADDING THEM TO THE POST. Apparently this is calendar-buying week. It was making me jumpy and unwilling to wait to post.]

 

(image from Target.com)

Fresh from the Garden calendar (Target) (Amazon). This is so bright and colorful with so many things to look at, and I feel like Fresh Produce is a cheery theme almost no matter what the new year brings. (If it brings a massive produce shortage, then never mind.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Happy Hedgehogs calendar (Target) (Amazon). Similarly, I feel as if we will not be SORRY to see a hedgehog each time we glance at the calendar. (Though if 2021 brings us an invasive attack of hedgehogs—and who among us could muster the surprise at this point?—then never mind.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Space Cats calendar (Target) (Amazon). Last year I actually DECIDED ON this calendar (in large part because of imagining how surprised my Fundraiser Calendar Twins would be, receiving that in the mail!), and it had SOLD OUT. That experience gives this calendar a head start in the running this year.

 

(image from Target.com)

Take Me There calendar (Target) (Amazon). Are you someone who PINES to travel again, and will only be cruelly taunted by these photos of beautiful places you can’t go right now? Then this may not be the right calendar for you. Are you on the contrary a person who would like to think of themselves as someone who travels, but you never actually do, and so you would like to look at beautiful places and for once not feel as if you ought to actually go? Then this seems IDEAL.

 

(image from Target.com)

Flowers calendar (Target) (Amazon). Nice and colorful and won’t taunt you with what you can’t have (unless 2021 is the year the bees die off and there are no more flowers).

 

(image from Target.com)

Nature’s Bouquet calendar (Target) (Amazon). Flowers again, but more field-of than zoomed-in-example-of.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Birds & Botanicals calendar (Amazon). Miss Grace drew my attention to this one and I LOVE it. I like the Parlor Wallpaper vibe. [The link broke when it sold out; it didn’t originally go to an owl calendar!]

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Llewellyn’s 2021 Greenwitch Botanical calendar (Amazon). HOW CHARMING IS THIS??

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Botanical Gardens calendar (Amazon). This is so frilly and extra and I am so here for it. Writing spaces are kind of small because of all the decoration.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Illustrated Order of the Animals calendar (Amazon). I love this and I think I would LEARN from it, but I need more writing space than that.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Inside Poland’s Majestic Churches calendar (Amazon). This is not a calendar I would have predicted I’d be including. But just LOOK at those churches!!

 

(image from Target.com)

Furry Friends calendar (Target) (Amazon). They are furry; they are friends; perhaps all could be right in the world.

 

(image from Target.com)

Home Sweet Home: Our Happy Place calendar (Target) (Amazon). So. Okay. For ME, this feels a bit too on-the-nose/bright-siding. But Elizabeth has a friend whose house is just FULL of Live Laugh Love, Faith Friends Family, With Coffee All Things Are Possible, In This House We…, etc., and I would think this could be just the calendar for emphasizing the cozy positive side of being housebound? Or it might be too much even for that.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

World of Color calendar (Amazon). Sometimes when I see something that is a mad riot of color, I think “My eyes were STARVED for color and I hadn’t realized!”

 

(image from Amazon.com)

The Art of Daniel Merriam calendar (Amazon). This is not quite my style, but I think this passes the test for “a page that would be interesting to look at for an entire month.”

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Farm portraits calendar (Amazon). I feel that the duck is the shot and the widdle bunny is the chaser—but without feeling entirely sure I understand the metaphor of shot/chaser.

 

(image from Target.com)

That Dood Squad calendar (Target) (Amazon). I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s making me feel happy to look at it.

 

(image from Target.com)

Corgis calendar (Target) (Amazon). Edward wants a corgi very badly, based on their cute appearance; I have looked into the breed and have broken the news to him that, while undeniably VERY VERY CUTE, a corgi is Not The Right Dog For Us. Perhaps a calendar instead, for admiring their undeniable cuteness.

 

(image from Target.com)

Unicornucopia calendar (Target) (Amazon). I don’t know either, but I added it to my cart. This feels like pure 2021 energy to me.

 

(image from Target.com)

Sweet and Sassy calendar (Target) (Amazon). Elizabeth happened to be passing by, and she and I both liked the cover page. Then we saw one about how girls want to have fun, and also nice handbags, and also equal pay, and we were like “Ooooooooo pretty good?” Then we saw the one about how all you need is love…and also a million dollars and fabulous shoes, and in unison we both said sarcastically “GIRLS AMIRITE??” And then we saw the one about how what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, except bears which will kill you—and I would have to put a different calendar page over that one because THAT IS NOT A PLACE IN WHICH THE WORD “EXCEPT” MAKES SENSE. IF BEARS WILL KILL YOU, THEY ARE ALREADY EXCEPTED BY THE PHRASE “WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU.” Then we were looking at the whole back cover and Elizabeth said, “Hm, and they’re all white.” EVERY SINGLE WOMAN IN THIS CALENDAR IS WHITE. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2021. Which may not be 100% accurate (I don’t know their genes, and the pictures are small), but. Anyway, I just wanted to make you feel mad too.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

The previous calendar could learn a lot from the Hot Guys with Cute Animals calendar (Amazon), which I use purely as a good example of better diversity.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Posters for Change calendar (Target). I think this is such a cool idea, but January’s poster would make me sad and anxious all month, and I don’t think that’s what January needs. Also, Elizabeth, who had gotten sucked into this calendar-choosing project, thought some of the posters “looked like middle-school projects.” If I DID get this calendar, I think it would be neat to combine it with the goal to make a donation each month to a cause related to that month’s design.

 

(image from Target.com)

Christmas is Coming calendar (Target) (Amazon). The entire calendar is Christmas-themed. I admire and enjoy the thinking of whoever came up with this idea and then just went with it.

 

(image from Target.com)

It’s a Good Day To Crochet calendar (Target) (Amazon). Oh, this is so fresh and pretty.

 

(image from Target.com)

Landscapes calendar (Target) (Amazon). Tranquil and pretty—and it’s a little sad how comforting it is now to see wide open spaces with NO PEOPLE in them. Too many of my bad dreams this year have involved being in a crowd.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg calendar (Amazon). *WEEP*

 

(image from Target.com)

Can’t Kill Me calendar (Target) (Amazon). The cover of this doesn’t appeal to me per se (I don’t have a cubicle, I am not known for killing plants), but I love the pictures: just an entire plant on a plain white background, being a plant. This is a strong candidate.

 

(image from Target.com)

Farm Yoga calendar (Target) (Amazon). I am briefly drawn to each funny yoga calendar (Cow Yoga, Horse Yoga, Sloth Yoga, Llama Yoga, Unicorn Yoga, etc.), but, because it’s the same kind of animal each month, the calendar doesn’t seem visually interesting enough to last a whole year. THIS one has a different animal each month, which puts it into much stronger consideration.

 

(image from Target.com)

Peaky Blinders calendar (Target) (Amazon). My understanding is that some of you have a bit of a thing for the gentleman on the cover.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Animal Crossing calendar (Amazon). If we’d been choosing calendars back in April or May, I think this would have been the household’s choice.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Star Trek Cats calendar (Amazon). Omg.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Bob Ross calendar (Amazon). I bought a Bob Ross calendar one year and found it a very soothing choice.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Teapot calendar (Amazon). To go with all the tea I am drinking.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Mandalorian calendar (Amazon). Did I mention we’re watching this? Sure is a lot of shooting and killing and racing and crashing and swaggering and being all tough-guy, considering how many of us are only watching it for the cute baby.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Pusheen calendar (Amazon). We had a Pusheen calendar one year, and it was such a satisfying calendar I almost buy it again each year.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Backyard Foraging calendar (Amazon). Oh, that’s a fun concept, and also I really like the artwork. I don’t like how small the squares are.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Feathered Friends calendar (Amazon). I can’t remember if I’ve actually had this calendar, or if I’ve just had it in my top three so many years in a row it FEELS like I’ve already had it.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Este MacLeode calendar (Amazon). Gorgeous. A finalist last year, but sold out before I could decide.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Masha D’Yans calendar (Amazon). I have had a Masha D’Yans calendar twice, which is the most I have ever had a calendar by the same artist or else I might be tempted to choose it again.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Klimt Landscapes calendar (Amazon). I was strongly considering this one last year, but waited too long (“Is it…too many little dots of color?”), and then I had regrets—which makes it a stronger finalist this year.

 

 

I’d say I’m down to Space Cats, Can’t Kill Me, Este MacLeode, and Klimt Landscapes—and most strongly toward the last two, especially since Elizabeth thinks she wants Can’t Kill Me for her room.

If you use calendars: what are you choosing this year?

Christmas Card Photos; Grocery Shopping Report Including Tea Update

46 Replies

Well, I have gotten to my tipping point, where “too early to worry about Christmas” turns into “IT’S TOO LATE!! IT’S TOO LATE!!” Such a magical time of year.

I’d thought we would do our annual family photo to put in with the Christmas cards, but that went from “We need to do that pretty soon” to “Welp, too late for that now.” At first I thought I would just skip it: my feeling is that people really like to receive photos in holiday cards, because I really like to receive photos in holiday cards—but I don’t delude myself that OUR PARTICULAR family photo will make or break someone’s holiday-card-receiving experience. “In This of All Years, it is fine to skip,” I told myself. But then I thought, “…or is it In This of All Years that it’s More Important Than Ever?”

There I sat, getting a headache imagining trying to get my two college kids assembled/cooperative during daylight hours, getting the tripod set right so we’re not just a sea of underchin/nostrils, trying to get Henry to (1) look at the camera and (2) stop goofing/talking and (3) no, don’t GLARE at the camera—and I couldn’t face it. So I took a pair of Thanksgiving pictures, one that Paul took from his end of the table and one that I took from my end of the table, and I got them put together on one 4×6, and I ordered them for delivery, and they’ll be here by next Tuesday. Good enough is good enough.

I went grocery shopping in person today, to get the things we haven’t been able to get curbside. My anxiety about grocery-shopping, which had gone wayyyyy down between March and November as I got used to it, has gone back up: not to early-pandemic levels, when we didn’t know if we should be wiping down our groceries or not, but…up, as hospitals report running out of beds and as people post photos of their happy maskless Thanksgiving get-togethers. And it is frustrating to be TRYING to do curbside pick-up instead, but then to pick up the order and find a little paper informing me that they were unable to fulfill my requests for milk, meat, or bread. WHAT IS GOING ON. There are no shortages of those items right now!

Well. I will say that even after only two curbside pick-ups, I have newfound gratitude for being able to go into a store to choose things myself. The anxiety is higher, but so is the happiness. And, since curbside is giving a false feeling of scarcity by somehow not being able to acquire certain basics, finding those basics at my store (WHERE THERE IS NO SCARCITY OF THEM) gives me increased feelings of relief and happiness. My in-person trips now feel like treasure hunts where I always find the treasure.

Today, for example. The curbside grocery store claims not to have cheddar cheese in block form, in any size or brand. I go through a LOT of block cheddar cheese. So buying three nice big blocks of it at my usual grocery store was THRILLING. I came home and lovingly tucked my three bars of gold into the cheese drawer.

Curbside has had no ground beef for two trips in a row. My usual grocery store had ample ground beef in every percentage. I bought three packages and felt like I’d won a prize.

Curbside had NO WHEAT BREAD. I had checked the “any substitution is fine” box, but STILL no bread. I bought three loves (I appear to have had a Three theme going on for some reason) and felt content.

And treats! I feel more reluctant to put treats/non-necessities on the curbside list. I DO put them on there, I DO—but I put fewer than I would if I were shopping myself. It’s partly self-consciousness + unnecessary caring about what other people think, and it’s partly that it feels a little less comfortable to ask someone else to bring out a pack of Little Debbie cakes and a container of ice cream than it feels to ask them to bring out bread and milk. Whether or not it SHOULD feel that way. Anyway! Today I got flavored seltzer! And several kinds of packaged holiday cookies, including one of those “sewing supplies” tins! And a package of Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux, which are my favorites and I could not get them from curbside or from Target and thought maybe they weren’t made anymore! And a couple kinds of candy for stockings! And Christmas-themed Little Debbie cakes! And diet Coke!

Oh and! They had crushed tomatoes!! I haven’t been able to find those for over a month! I bought three cans!

And I nearly wept right there in the store as I put two large packages of frozen broccoli florets in my cart: I don’t know if I just got a bad bag or what, but my first bag from the curbside grocery store was TERRIBLE. So, so mushy and soggy, even when I tried again and microwaved another serving for much less time than usual; and many pieces had gross brown sections. Maybe it was just a bad bag! I will try again! But…in the meantime, I have two large bags of Good Familiar Reliable Broccoli.

They had Kraft macaroni, which curbside was out of and I could have gotten from Target Drive-up but I wasn’t planning a trip there soon, and it’s an Emotional Support Food for two of the kids.

They had the jarred pasta sauce we use, which curbside was out of and I couldn’t get from Target.

They had stuffing mix, which curbside said they were out of and I couldn’t get from Target. (It has to be a vegetarian one, which limits options.) Every year we eat the leftover stuffing disappointingly quickly and I wish I’d made two batches. I’ve made a note for next year—and in the meantime, where is the rule saying I can’t make stuffing as a side dish for a normal meal? NOWHERE.

And then there was The Tea Aisle. You all gave so many good tea suggestions, and some of them were not available from the places I normally get things shipped/curbside, so I was VERY EXCITED to check my grocery store to see what they’d have. I will start by saying that, sadly, they did not have any holiday teas—or if they did, I missed them in my flustered anxiety, which is fully possible because I know NORMALLY they have a cardboard display of holiday teas. Maybe I walked right past it. I might have. I really might have. Well, let’s not dwell on it. The point is that I didn’t want to LINGER but I wanted to come home with SEVERAL fun suggested teas if possible, and I DID!

I am drinking a cup of Bengal Spice right now, and I am going to try the Ceylon Orange Pekoe this afternoon when I need a little caffeine!

Tipping Delivery People at the Holidays During a Pandemic Year

28 Replies

I am getting nervous about gift cards for delivery people. Normally I give one to the mail carrier, and in recent years I’ve started putting one out for UPS. But this year is different, OBVIOUSLY. I have been getting a LOT of things shipped. Here are my anxieties:

• Even the top amount I’m thinking of tipping a delivery person seems pretty flimsy at a time like this—almost insulting. Like, *tossing coin, making them catch it*

• Also, I just went to double-check what the rules were, and for USPS mail carriers the maximum gift they may receive is something valued at $20—and they may not receive ANY cash or gift cards in ANY amount. (Source.) Er, I have been (1) giving gift cards and (2) at times exceeding that value. And I got a nice thank-you note from the mail carrier, and she did not give the gift card back to me saying she couldn’t accept it. So I am guessing those rules are not followed/enforced, but now that I KNOW the rules I hesitate to deliberately break them. But. They strike me as…not-good rules. And maybe…I will just continue to break them, pretending I don’t know? I WOULDN’T have known, if I hadn’t deliberately looked it up! It’s just, I am QUITE SURE my mail carrier would rather have a gift card than a Thoughtful Mug or whatever. (Perhaps I could leave a giant bottle of hand sanitizer, and a package of toilet paper?)

• According to this AARP article, Fed Ex drivers are not allowed to accept anything. But…quite a few of our packages have been coming Fed Ex. (We’re not choosing Fed Ex: the company that ships the packages is choosing.) Do I leave out a card anyway, on the idea that, as with USPS carriers, Fed Ex delivery people might just…go ahead and accept anyway?

• Wait, what about Amazon delivery people? It’s different ones all the time! Maybe put $5 in an envelope on four separate expecting-a-delivery days and just hope it works out?

• That worries me about UPS, too: I am pretty sure we have one main driver who does our route (that’s the way it was at our old house)—but during the holidays, maybe it would be an extra holiday person running the packages up to the house, and THEY’D get the gift card! (I realize I could…I don’t know, call UPS and ask or something, but let’s be at peace with the idea that I am just not going to do that.)

• I have just realized to my dismay that I must have missed the Target 10% off gift cards sale. I remember seeing something about it, I remember INTENDING to act on it…and now, I don’t see anything. Well. Into each life a little rain etc.

 

[Edited to add: I should mention that we tried to do the good idea of setting out a big basket of snacks/waters, and the squirrels absolutely destroyed it. So that is now out of the running.]