bourbon & cedar & soap on a rope - season of light, season of hope

....lights - decorations - boiled custard - russell stovers - oranges - nuts in the shell - candy canes - santas lap - bourbon - fanny battle - cheese ball - sugar cookie - gift wrap - curlie ribbon - paper fill - brown packages - UPS shipping....

back in the day, there wasn't a UPS store in every strip mall. there wasn't package pick-up at your door. there wasn't "if it fits it ships for one low price". there wasn't free shipping at the dot-com, mostly because there wasn't a dot-com to speak of. back in the day, if you wanted to ship holiday gifts, you went to the UPS shipping location in a light-industrial office park out by the airport. every year, we'd trek out there to ship gifts across the country to cousins i knew by name only. every year, we'd get lost. every year. every single year.

how often did we do that, really? memory is such a funny thing. it was at least twice, probably three times, but was it more than that? i don't know. probably other people went in later years and i just stayed home.

it was fun and funny and we had a good time. we would sing carols and drive around miles of office parks while she searched for the UPS. i mean, i guess she was looking. if she wasn't looking, who was? certainly not me. i was just a kid for crissakes.

....spice round - lite brite - advent candle - advent calendar - cedar tree - name ornaments - chanel no. 5 - grape jelly and scrambled eggs - bubble yum - madam alexander - new jeans - add a pearl - sleeping bags....