Last Minute Lucy Lives!

What was I thinking when I decided (rather late, I might add) to hand-make a bunch of holiday gifts this year? I spent most of the day yesterday finishing up getting gifts made and packages wrapped and finally got them to the post office last night at around 7pm. I can officially say I mailed them on December 20th, but whether they get to their destination before Christmas remains to be seen. I even got my photo cards addressed and a cute (I think) little letter written and printed out-thanks to Big Picture Scrapbooking and a "class" on writing holiday letters. It wasn't fancy-pretty, but it got done. The girls helped by putting labels on the envelopes and stuffing some of the envelopes before they tired of the job.

I have to share though, I experienced my first post office mailbox "rage" when I dropped off the cards. Across the street from our post office is a line of mailboxes where you can drop off stamped letters and such. I pulled up and saw two other cars like me, who must have waited until the last possible second to get the cards in the mail. I pulled up to the second of two mailboxes for stamped letters and realized the box that I was going to use was too full to put my cards in, so I backed up just a little to the other one that wasn't quite as full. I about jumped through the ceiling of the car when the person who had pulled up behind me laid on their horn! I looked in my rearview mirror and saw this lady gesturing wildly behind me and obviously yelling at me (she must have thought I was going to ram into her car-I just inched back to reach the other mailbox). So I mouthed, RELAX! She looked like a madwoman hopping around inside her car. So the little evil person in me who occasionally rears it's ugly head showed up and I just SAT there looking at her in my rear view mirror and I kept saying...Relax, it's not worth it, into my rearview mirror! It was only for a second or two, honest, but, oh boy, if I thought she was mad before (for what? Having to wait a second or two to get to the mailbox???) I thought she was going to blow a gasket, now. Seriously, people, she was that ticked off. She got OUT of her car and jammed her letters into the mailbox all the while yelling at me. Can you believe it? Oh man, I'm sure she needs some sympathy and a chill pill for getting that worked up over dropping off some cards in the middle of the morning. She sped off out of the parking lot and zoomed around the corner and I hope she didn't get into an accident. I pulled away just shaking my head that people get THAT worked up over having to wait for a mere few seconds to do what they want to do. Looking back, if I was a better, more quick thinking person, I would have pulled out and gotten behind her so she could get this very serious job of putting letters in a mailbox done a few seconds quicker. People are amazing, aren't they?!

Oh and then last night, after I mailed off my packages, I went to Kmart for hubby who said the girls picked out some jammies they liked that were on sale. I made it to check out area and realized they had TWO lanes open and about 30 people waiting to be checked out. Was I thrilled? No, but I knew I'd eventually get to the cashier, so I waited. The people behind me though, fidgeted and complained to each other and even went so far as to seek out a manager to complain. I saw the look on the cashier's face...she was dog-tired. So I waited patiently and even read a good chunk of a People magazine (always fun) and when I got to her I was sympathetic and said I knew I'd get to pay soon enough. I think she appreciated that.

I am not a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination, but at this time of the year when everyone is scurrying around trying to get their things done, I just wish patience wasn't the first thing to fly out the window. I hope the complainers and yellers and fidgeters realize doing so doesn't make things go more quickly or smoothly. It just raises the blood pressure and makes things less enjoyable for others.

I came home from Kmart to see my husband and girls working on decorating the Christmas tree. Now that's what makes it all worthwhile. I just sat in the car for a few moments, looking through our big picture window and enjoyed the view.

Happy Holidays to you! I hope you are ENJOYING the season! I'll be back in bit with another post showing some of the things I created yesterday in my flurry of activity-didn't want any negativity in this post to take away from the fun stuff!

Hugs,

Jeanne