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Nov. 24th, 2014 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckMy sister finally got back to me about my nephew's interests. She likes the idea of Goosebumps books for him. He already has the first three Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He hasn't tried any graphic novels and doesn't know the Peirce's Big Nate books. He still collects shot glasses, and he's now interested in geology.
We have some nice geology books that we bought when Cordelia was in second grade, when we were doing Rock Hunters for the Science Olympiad. We were going to donate the books to the Science Olympiad team, but they did away with the Rock Hunters event when Cordelia was in fourth grade. (I suspect that the event managers decided they'd had enough. If they were on the young side of seventy, I'd be surprised.) Cordelia's not interested in geology, so she's not going to use those books. We'll send them to our nephew, and that will take care of Christmas. In January, I'll order something for his birthday. There's plenty of time after Christmas for that. Now I just have to wrap the books and package them up to mail.
Scott says he's definitely working on Friday. Apparently, the one year they gave everybody Friday off, the plant management got into trouble because the employees hadn't worked forty hours that week. That means busy work on Friday. The machines will be shut down; there will be no production. They're just insisting that everybody show up anyway. Scott says they'll probably spend the time cleaning. I know one year they painted.
This concern with making sure everybody gets in forty hours doesn't bode well for Christmas Eve, either. Some years, Scott gets that off or gets off work early, but not always. Him working makes a lot of things more difficult-- His parents want us up in Fenton (an hour away) in time for dinner and church. It's a family tradition. They're perfectly willing to go to a 9:00 service, but we really, really don't want to because of the hour to get home after. Scott and I end up staying up late on Christmas Eve as it is, because we have to do the last minute present wrapping and retrieval. That usually takes a couple of hours. I'll wrap everything I can in advance even though I'm bad at wrapping stuff, but there are going to be some odd shaped things that require Scott's skill. Maybe the weekend before Christmas, I can find one of Cordelia's friends to take her for the day so that we can wrap then.
We decided to buy another big ticket item from Cordelia's wishlist-- I ordered an electric blue Nintendo 2ds from Best Buy via eBay. I wasn't sure how important getting the right color was to Cordelia, and I didn't feel like I could ask, so I stuck with her chosen blue. If I'd been able to go with red, instead, there were things I could have bid on that would probably have been cheaper. As it was, the Best Buy option which comes bundled with a game she also wants saved us $40 over Amazon.
I ended up ordering a couple of different Christmas tree ornaments. I haven't decided how to give them to Cordelia. I think she'll get the idea of an early present. I nearly balked at paying $15 for the ornament that she really wanted-- a Kung Fu Panda ornament of baby Po-- but I did. We'll use it for years. I also ordered a little polar bear with a drum that Cordelia wanted and a set of six tiny glass owls that I liked.
This year, we actually managed to mail some of Cordelia's school pictures to my mother and to my father. We've been buying enough for them every year, but this is the first year I've actually put together envelopes to send. We even got them to the post office and shipped them on Saturday. My father will be please. I'm not sure what my mother will think. She adores her grandchildren, but she's never wanted to be bothered with photographs. She and my step-father have never said a word about the photo calendar that Scott makes every year and sends to them. Not a single word. Not even thank you. For all we know, they burn the dratted things.
We have some nice geology books that we bought when Cordelia was in second grade, when we were doing Rock Hunters for the Science Olympiad. We were going to donate the books to the Science Olympiad team, but they did away with the Rock Hunters event when Cordelia was in fourth grade. (I suspect that the event managers decided they'd had enough. If they were on the young side of seventy, I'd be surprised.) Cordelia's not interested in geology, so she's not going to use those books. We'll send them to our nephew, and that will take care of Christmas. In January, I'll order something for his birthday. There's plenty of time after Christmas for that. Now I just have to wrap the books and package them up to mail.
Scott says he's definitely working on Friday. Apparently, the one year they gave everybody Friday off, the plant management got into trouble because the employees hadn't worked forty hours that week. That means busy work on Friday. The machines will be shut down; there will be no production. They're just insisting that everybody show up anyway. Scott says they'll probably spend the time cleaning. I know one year they painted.
This concern with making sure everybody gets in forty hours doesn't bode well for Christmas Eve, either. Some years, Scott gets that off or gets off work early, but not always. Him working makes a lot of things more difficult-- His parents want us up in Fenton (an hour away) in time for dinner and church. It's a family tradition. They're perfectly willing to go to a 9:00 service, but we really, really don't want to because of the hour to get home after. Scott and I end up staying up late on Christmas Eve as it is, because we have to do the last minute present wrapping and retrieval. That usually takes a couple of hours. I'll wrap everything I can in advance even though I'm bad at wrapping stuff, but there are going to be some odd shaped things that require Scott's skill. Maybe the weekend before Christmas, I can find one of Cordelia's friends to take her for the day so that we can wrap then.
We decided to buy another big ticket item from Cordelia's wishlist-- I ordered an electric blue Nintendo 2ds from Best Buy via eBay. I wasn't sure how important getting the right color was to Cordelia, and I didn't feel like I could ask, so I stuck with her chosen blue. If I'd been able to go with red, instead, there were things I could have bid on that would probably have been cheaper. As it was, the Best Buy option which comes bundled with a game she also wants saved us $40 over Amazon.
I ended up ordering a couple of different Christmas tree ornaments. I haven't decided how to give them to Cordelia. I think she'll get the idea of an early present. I nearly balked at paying $15 for the ornament that she really wanted-- a Kung Fu Panda ornament of baby Po-- but I did. We'll use it for years. I also ordered a little polar bear with a drum that Cordelia wanted and a set of six tiny glass owls that I liked.
This year, we actually managed to mail some of Cordelia's school pictures to my mother and to my father. We've been buying enough for them every year, but this is the first year I've actually put together envelopes to send. We even got them to the post office and shipped them on Saturday. My father will be please. I'm not sure what my mother will think. She adores her grandchildren, but she's never wanted to be bothered with photographs. She and my step-father have never said a word about the photo calendar that Scott makes every year and sends to them. Not a single word. Not even thank you. For all we know, they burn the dratted things.
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Date: 2014-11-24 02:32 pm (UTC)I apologize that your parents don't say if they appreciate the photo calendars that your family sends to them. I wish I could send you better-behaved parents for Christmas. :)
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