TBG has crowned me Best Xmas Elf Ever; ever has real meaning for me this year. I started gifting brownies in fancy containers in 1981, before we were parents, when my list was small ,and, for the most part, local. 43 years later, the containers are less fancy, I'm sending them to my children's friends and their offspring, and my list is no longer small nor local. It makes me very happy.
It's a fun kind of stress. Do I have the requisite number of containers suitable for all the celebrations, with packing materials ready to hand? I spent this morning realizing that I had no mailers and no bubble wrap; I added two post offices and Office Depot to my day.
I hooked up the new printer so I can create the mailing labels It was delivered overnight several weeks ago.... what was the rush? I found the stash of note cards and gift tags and string. Somewhere there is a sparkly red shoe box with embellishments; for the moment, it remains elusive.
Isn't that a lovely problem to have? I overcame my anxiety about dealing with electronics and actually enjoyed playing with my printer's features. It can even be a fax, which brings me back to the 1980's and just how long I've been doing this and how I have never fully organized the list nor established a routine. Every year I find that the process has taken over and arranged itself appropriately, without much brain power on my part.
We'll be gone for the holidays so my decorating is minimal. I opened an oversized storage bag and one layer of one box. I brought in the containers I've accumulated over the year and set them up on the far counter in the kitchen, This area has become the center of operations without any planning at all. It's convenient for filling the various containers, for wrapping the cooled confections, and for storing the giant IKEA bag that transports them to the post office.
Tomorrow I'll print out the Brownie List and the labels and get things going for real. Tonight, I'm rewarding myself by playing with the packaging and thinking about the people who'll be opening their misshapen Priority Flat Mail envelopes, a feature that more than one recipient has mentioned in the mandatory thank you communication. I've been hanging out with family and friends all night.
Did I mention that this makes me very happy?
Giving to others always makes us happy.
ReplyDeleteHappy baking!
It's so true
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