Seeing Faces To Forget

Throughout this season there have been too many gifts to specifically remember any individual surprise. Actually, this year has been full of generosity from friends, family, and coworkers alike. It has been at times overwhelming but appreciated each end every time that an unexpected box or envelope has been put in our hands. However, since I have written about the many gifts that we received earlier in the year, I will stick with those that we have gotten over the last month or two… basically during the holiday season.

Hanukkah was early this year and it was fun surprising both our son and my wife with gifts for each night… and then some. What I got in return was better than anything that I handed out as the faces that they made were something that I am already looking forward to seeing again next year. However, my wife and I agreed, long before the holiday and prior to settlement on the house, that my gift was a new set of office furniture. Of course, my wife also got me a cordless drill during the holiday which I didn’t expect. All of these things I am going to use for years so I pretty much made out like a bandit.

Toward the end of the month I received my preferred gift, a few times over in fact, of a gift card to a few places that I can make that money stretch as far as possible. In all, between friends, family, and coworkers, we probably received close to $200 in plastic. This was on top of the small gifts and has nothing to do with the horde that our son received. Although he probably would have been just as happy with the boxes and tissue paper. More about that later.

However, like the reactions I received from my wife and son, the best part of the holiday season has been the looks on people’s faces when I hand them an unexpected box or envelope. Many of the brothers at the lodge seemed to refuse reality, my coworkers were shocked, and family members were surprised. For me this is what the holiday season is about regardless of your faith. It has been a great season and a difficult one at the same time but seeing those glimpses of joy allow me to focus only on what is good and happy about this time of year.   

Errands, Sales, And Gift Cards Result In A Retail Hangover

With only one day this past weekend free from commitments, my wife and I spent the entirety of Sunday running errands. Some were overdue and now on a ticking clock, others were the result of the baby shower the day before, and some were just errands of opportunity. By the time we got home in the early evening we were tired and ready for another weekend.

The first trip was to the old apartment to pick up the cable boxes that I had forgotten to put in the car numerous times. I had gotten a call from Comcast last week and I really didn’t want to see another bill from them in the coming weeks. Now that this is done, it shouldn’t take much longer before our previous residence is finally a thing of the past.

From there we drove to Staples where I spent the next hour of my life scanning, formatting, and confirming the order for new lodge dues cards and address stamps. This is why I have been putting off this trip for so long. Of course, while we were there, it took the opportunity to restock on a few essentials (i.e. ink, envelopes, etc.). Between rewards dollars and coupons we did pretty well.

After swinging by my parent’s house and picking up a few baby shower gifts that got lost in the shuffle, we drove back west. On our way to drop off the aforementioned Comcast boxes (they don’t really have many convenient locations), and because I took a slightly longer route, we drove by the local Office Max which, turns out, is closing and was in the midst of clearing out the store. So, with the drop off taken care of, we circled back and slowly walked through the store. Got to love saving nearly 70% on items that you had been looking to pick up when the price was right.

By this point we were starting to slow down but we were only 5 minutes away from Babies R Us and we had both coupons and gift cards in hand (both from the gifts we brought home the night before and some that were in envelopes in the trunk that we had just retrieved). Needless to say, we decided to check a few more items off the registry and cherry pick the clearance racks and shelves. Even with a cart load of baby items, we actually still have some funds left to round things out a little later. Of course, there is still a lot of stuff on the registry too.

After a quick dinner (Bob Evans doesn’t mix well with pregnancy) we finally headed home for the day. While tiring we did manage to get a lot done that won’t muck up a future weekend. With that said, the retail hangover this morning was something that I don’t look forward to experiencing again.