Happy New Year! Yeah, I’m sure you’re getting tired of hearing that phrase already. But it’s the first RTT for the New Year, so I couldn’t resist.
I was able to recruit the hubby into taking all the Christmas decorations off the front porch for me while I was busy trying to get the pile’o’boxes of Christmas goodies ready to ship this weekend. You read that right – I finally shipped my family and friends their Christmas gifts and goodies yesterday. Late is probably an understatement, but better late than never.
It happens every year – I buy stuff way in advance, fully intending on getting them to their destinations in time for Christmas, but every year I can’t seem to get it together and get it all done and shipped out. It will be nice when we move back to Seattle so I won’t have to pay $100+ in shipping costs to send off a Merry Christmas – I’ll be able to just deliver them in person. That will be so cool. And much more Merry.
Oh, and the reason getting the hubby to take down the Christmas decor off the front porch for me is so significant? Because usually I do that all myself – and last year I was really late getting that all taken care of. You know, like February for the porch, and May for the tree. I had been tempted to leave the tree up year ’round last year and simply decorate it for each holiday, but finally got tired of the massiveness of it invading my living room. This year, since we got a smaller (read: scraggly) tree, while it’s still up, Princess Nagger and I took all the ornaments off yesterday, and it will be stored away by the end of this week, rendering my living room back to ‘normal’ in record speed.
Here’s a (not so great) comparison of last year’s tree vs. this year’s tree:
While we didn’t put even half the ornaments we have on it, we did put the important ones. And some extras. Princess Nagger got a kick out of me putting her Princess Santa Hat on top in lieu of the angel (and it was actually just a temporary thing to make sure the dogs didn’t mistake it for a chew toy, but became a permanent fixture for the topper this year, per Princess Nagger’s request.)
I actually got Princess Nagger to finally help get her piles’o’stuff cleaned up in the living room yesterday after her first day back to school. Sure, she was in mega Drama Queen mode, and kept protesting that she was too tired to help clean up, but after threats of tossing everything into a box marked ‘eBay’, she dove in a little more enthusiastically. Ahem.
We had a rough start with our switch back over to Comcast – but after I made 50 calls to them on Tuesday (because I had no internet, and every time I used the phone, the cable modem would reboot itself about two-minutes into the call (which would take out both the phone and the internet) making me start over again with the Comcast computer). I’m sure they got tired of me finally getting hold of a ‘human’, only to get cut off barely into my sentence of explanation. I think they thought I was one crazy lady.
They finally sent a tech guy out at 8pm Tuesday night after I was without internet and phone since noon that day, (and someone was supposed to be here by 5pm (to which they promised a $20 credit to our account for their ‘customer guarantee)), and I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy, too, as he perused my computer to see what I had messed up. So I decided to call Comcast while he was here, and sure enough, barely two-minutes into the phone call, the cable modem rebooted. Proof that I wasn’t crazy. He immediately swapped out the cable modem, and connection has been pretty much successful ever since. Well, except for the hubby’s 2 computers. But that turned out to be user error.
Just as I was finishing up this post last night, I received an ‘exception’ from FedEx for one of the boxes I shipped out yesterday. They damaged one of the boxes, and it won’t be delivered. Great!! The box hadn’t even left the state, and was heading to Nevada. Not anymore. I spent some time on the phone with a customer service rep because it contained gifts I had been collecting over the last six-months for my best friend and her hubby and son – hopefully they’ll return the box to me so I can assess the damage and maybe try again. I decided to use FedEx because 1) they’re cheap, and 2) I’ve always had good luck with them not losing or damaging boxes during shipping. Until now. Damn Murphy’s Law!
That about wraps it up for me this week – don’t forget to head over to visit Keely the Un-Mom – hopefully Murphy’s Law won’t be wreaking havoc with her so early in the New Year.
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Go forth and be Random.
I’m also participating in Follow Me Back Tuesday – if you are a new Follower, please be sure to leave a link so I can follow you back!
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Once again I’m hopping aboard this fun friendly train – if you’re traveling on the train, be sure to leave your link so I can follow you back!
I just realized that despite all the RTT, I never was actually following you… I just fixed that! Your call to Comcast sounds like all my calls to Verizon. About a month ago, after being on the phone for an hour or so, and getting no where, I finally hung up and called my husband and suggested we go back to the days were people didn’t have phones or internet, and instead just read by candle because I couldn’t handle one more second on the phone with Verizon trying to resolve our issue.
I still have decorations up. I’m very slow this year to get it down. Of course, I didn’t go overboard on any of it this year either.
Thanks for joining us on the Tuesday Train!
I lovingly refer to them as Comtrash. 😉
What a drag to waste a day or two or three on Comcast calls!!! I did the same thing yesterday with the bank!!! Bummer about the FedEx box. I have never heard of that happening. I love your tree!
Happy Tuesday!
Gift cards! it’s the only way to go when shopping for Family gifts. You can also buy them online and have them shipped and wrapped. 🙂 Another option is the Bus. Seriously we sent packages 1 day or 7hours on a bus to home. Postage in Canada is crazy expensive.
Our tree is still up in the living room. I need to get an extra storage box and I think it will last until this weekend, when I have time and energy to take the silly thing down.
Happy New Year to you too!
I, too, still have our decorations up. Beloved and The Young One took down the outside lights and decorations, but the ones in the house are still here. Staring at me.
I guess I’ll go to the basement and start hauling boxes up. *sigh*
I wish FedEx could have ruined the present The G Man gave me before I got it. Cold, anyone?
I have Comporium and that did the same thing to me. I swear these companies have a monopoly on our towns and can get away with treating us like crap. #FAIL
We took everything down on Jan 2nd. We always take stuff down right after New Years. I still have Christmas presents I have to send so you are ahead of me.
You have had a rough start to your “new” year!! Glad Comcast go worked out for you though. That can be a real pain in the rear for sure!
I still have all my Christmas up and it will stay until the end of January. I decorate my tree all year long with the seasons. So it will remain. Ha! I love it!
I definitely don’t use FedEx. They drop kick boxes when they deliver..always damaged when I get them…if at all! My first choice is USPS and then UPS!
Hope you get your box back though. That would be a plus
Hugs
SueAnn
My husband, the Big Tuna, maimed his knee at work last week. I’m thinking he did it to avoid taking Santa down.
I dragged our tree out to the trash on January 2nd. I was just so tired of all the needles. By the time I was finished unraveling the lights and wrestling the damn thing out of the base, I was coated in sap and had foliage stowed away in my bra.
Happy New Year to you! Of course you can still say it, it’s only the 4th. 🙂
Mrsbear would like you to read ..You’ll Barely Notice the Scars- Mostly Because it’s a Metaphor
I have to say (knock wood) that I haven’t had any trouble with Comcast, except when they turn off my service because I neglected to pay them in a timely manner.
Regarding your sending gifts at this late date. You are still in the season. The Christmas season ends on the Feast of the Epiphany, which is January 6. This is the day that commemorates when the Magi brought gifts to the Christ Child. So you’re still good on the gifts!
I solved the problem of putting decorations away…. I never put a tree up this year. Only one of my 3 kids was here over Christmas and she was barely here at all. I never missed the tree!
So, Happy New Year and I hope you get your Fed Ex problem fixed quickly!
This year, we didn’t hang any lights or put out any lawn decorations and didn’t hang all of our ornaments either. I couldn’t be bothered! I was pretty grateful for my laziness on New Years Day, though!
I love the Santa hat instead of an angel. That’s really clever!
Call me totally selfish but when I read that one of the boxes was damaged I thought; Oh no! Not my wine! Then I read Nevada and I thought; Oh good but too bad for someone else.
It took all of 7 minutes to take down our Christmas stuff. I’ve decided to call it editing. Not too lazy to put up everything.
Hate comcast… but don’t have the energy to hate Fios more…
Prehaps in the spring…
I threatened Sprite just this last Friday with selling all of her stuff on Ebay! Unfortunately, she gave it right back when she said “I wanna go to see Ebay.” Mom snark FAIL.
Putting this up for Christmas is great, but putting them down is another story! lol I once had things up til mid February. haha
I hate that Murphy. Christmas is the one time I will actually put anything up.
My decorations are all down. The tree, however – which is Alfred’s job – is still standing there naked.
It isn’t the size of the tree that counts … it is the personality! And your little tree has lots of personality.
And I personally think it is nice to get presents AFTER everything is over and done so you get one last little taste of Christmas.
You are the second person this week that has had Murphy play pranks on them. Hope things look up the next few weeks.