Month: December 2004

Yesterday there was a fine dusting of snow and frost on everything. I don’t even think it was a measurable amount of snow. So the general consensus was “ah, that’s nothing” and none of the roads were treated. Big mistake. You see, it was cold out…very cold. So that stuff wasn’t melting and evaporating. It was melting and freezing. Instant ice! It took Mr. Dump over THREE HOURS to drive from Leominster to Framingham. He missed his 8:30am root canal appointment because he didn’t get to Framingham until after TEN AM! I am going to be so upset if this means the appointments (I think there are three remaining) float over into 2005 and the dental insurance makes us pay the 2004 deductible AND the 2005 deductible. I would seriously pick a fight with them over that, that this is all “one” thing and should be treated as such. I’m not paying 1500 in deductibles just because the treatment requires a week between appointments.

Anyway, I only mention Mr. Dump’s commute because in my infinite wisdom, I planned to work at home yesterday. I had the furnace cleaned, saw Junior in his school play, and had a follow-up doctor appointment. I like to jam as much into a single day as possible, to get it all over with at once. I did sneak in a stop at the grocery store to pick up as much stuff as possible to get through until after Christmas – you know, the things we need every day, like juice boxes, stuff for school lunches, little bags of cotton candy. No wait, those are for Christmas presents.

Anyway, I would have lost those three hours of work and pay if I’d tried to drive in (we go the same way at different times because I have school bus duty at 7:45 and he’s already at work by then, usually) and thus not been paid for them. To hell with that! I’m not losing money because someone decided not to throw some salt down.

First, I wasn’t going to send out any Christmas cards this year. I barely sent any out last year, and I didn’t want to break tradition. Except we kept receiving them, and I started to realize that if you get a card from me every year for 20 years, and then two years in a row you send me a picture of your child/dog/swimming pool, and I don’t return the favor, you’re going to think that somehow you offended me and I hate you, or no, in fact, I never liked you at all.

So, after receiving the card from my sister with this cute picture of my niece and nephew, I thought “I can’t have our friends and relatives hanging them on refrigerators all over central Mass, but not hanging one of my boy!” So I bought a box of cards, which limited me to 18 people. Oh man, I used to send out twice that, but somehow, I had fallen out of touch with a couple of people and don’t even know if I have their addresses any more. I keep hoping they’ll send me a card so I’ll have the right address, but so far, I’m sure they are thinking the same thing of me. The thing these people need to know is that I lost my list of current addresses and for some people, the only ones I had were at least 3 or 4 years old. Seriously. I tore the house apart the other day. And then asked Mr. Dump to please get me an address book (nothing big and flashy) for Christmas.

So 18 people are getting cards, and if you expected one but didn’t get it, it isn’t that I don’t love and appreciate you, it’s just that I only had 18 cards and 20 photos (at 29 cents a print there) and 20 stamps. Yes, I know I can buy more of all of those things, but it’s also only about a week before Christmas.

I also didn’t get around to writing up one of those funny little letters to put in the card, so maybe I’ll write one this weekend and put it here on the site.

I was forgetting a group of people from my shopping list. See, my brain knew there was something wrong. Of course, I’m a little stumped as to what to do. You see, my son is in an aftercare program at his school, and that is run by about 6 college-aged (or post graduate) men and women, who are really great. I like them all, as does Junior. He’s sort of “assigned” to one of them for check-in and quiet time, but after that, he goes off with whoever is doing the activity he’s interested in. If it was more of a one-on-one situation, that would be easy. But it really isn’t like that, so I have 5 or 6 people to buy for.

I’m thinking maybe I’ll just give them each $5 worth of Dunkin Donuts gift certificates or something, but my fear is that I’ll forget one of them. That would be bad.

Anyway, I’m just happy my gift radar was working properly. They really are great with the kids, and make it SO much easier for me to feel good about leaving him with them every day. And he claims it’s his favorite part of “school” so it has that going for it.

Okay, this is the part of the Christmas season where I start to panic that I’ve forgotten to get someone a gift. I think I’ve accounted for everyone, but you know how it is. I know I have plenty of time left to take care of this, but it still nags at me. I sent out my Holiday Evil present as part of the Secret Satan gift exchange. (You know, gifts to bring horror and laughter. One year I gave out an autographed copy of Jamie Farr’s autobiography. I have received in the past the Henry Winkler version of A Christmas Carol, and Bill and Hillary paper dolls. You get the idea.)

I can’t say what I sent this year because I know at least one person who is involved in it reads the dump, and even if she isn’t the recipient (she’ll know soon enough, eh?) I don’t want to spoil anything. Let’s just say I’m really proud of myself. This was some good evil. It’s the 25 cent Candy Bar Salad of Christmas gifts.

I ordered something from Amazon for Junior’s teacher, and I’m hoping it comes in by Thursday because I’m going to be seeing her on Friday at the holiday play so I could give it to her then instead of sending it in on the bus with Junior. Of course, stuff I ordered from Amazon on November 26 was shipped on the 28th and arrived today so hoping for a Thursday arrival of stuff I ordered yesterday, even if I didn’t go for the free shipping this time, still seems unlikely.

Okay, I think I’m going to have to use this one next year because it’s so late in the season that it would cost me my life savings to put a rush order on creating and shipping me custom cards made with the following photo:

I took that picture the other day. It’s my new train set, going around my Dept 56 village. The train station I want now is of course retired, but I did find a set of three railroad figures. That’s one of them there, adjusting the time of the next expected train.

I thought this picture came out great, and wanted to make a Christmas card out of it. Of course, you’re supposed to use pictures of your kids on your Christmas cards, but the Dept 56 village was so much more photogenic than a kid who doesn’t want to sit still and have his picture taken. *sigh*

So lets pretend that this is your holiday card from me. I’d add some crappy background music, but I hate sites like that. Ho Ho Ho!