Wrapping Up the Holidays

Spent the morning wrapping the remaining presents. There were only four left - Jessa's, Dad's, Collyn's, and one for Lauren. All of the presents but Lauren's went in the back room. I usually leave them under the tree, but there's too many stuffed animals under there this year. All of the presents but Lauren's went in the back room. Lauren's will be sent out on Monday with everything else I'm sending in the mail for Christmas this year.

Ran 'Twas the Night Before Christmas while having a very quick lunch of canned chicken soup. This is yet another Rankin-Bass special, this time done in regular 2D animation. The children of Junctionville are upset when Santa Claus returns their letters, and their parents are even less happy. Seems that he's offended by a letter someone wrote calling him a "fraudulent lie." Turns out the author of the letter was a brainy little mouse who thinks he's too smart to believe in magic. That little mouse gets a lesson in thinking with your heart when he helps the clockmaker who owns his home fix his Santa-calling clock on Christmas Eve.

Not the best Rankin-Bass ever did, but still really cute. There's some nice music, too, including "Give Your Heart a Try" and "Even a Miracle Needs a Hand."

I left for work early to hit the post office and send my nephew Collyn's birthday present and find a PSP game for my brother Keefe for Christmas. Alas, even at 1:30, the line at the Audubon Post Office was way too long to stand in. I had to work at 2. I had no luck at the Game Stop in the Audubon Crossings Shopping Center, either. They didn't have a very good selection of PSP games, and none looked terribly interesting. I just went straight to work after that.

Work, at the very least, went better than Wednesday. It was on-and-off busy, and there were no major problems. Good thing, too. I had a lot of shopping to do, especially since I plan on devoting a lot of next week to cookie baking. I had to restock white sugar and flour and pick up peanut butter, coconut, maraschino cherries, and chocolate chips for the cookies. There was a good sale on Pam Cooking Spray and Blue Diamond Almonds, too.

The Acme is selling bags of boxes for cookie exchanges this year. Perfect. They'll be much easier to carry around than the awkward tins and plastic containers. I bought three and will pick up more if necessary.

My schedule next week is pretty good. 8:30 is the latest I work, and this is the first time in months I've had two days off in a row, Monday and Tuesday.