Remember the radio stations that used to track Santa for us? How they would announce that jolly St. Nick had been spotted in Canada or what have you, and all the kids would dive into bed and fake sleep? The Middlest Sister captures the very essence of a childhood Christmas eve. If you haven’t checked her out, what are you waiting for? Brilliant, beautiful comic strips created from scraps of cloth and paper.
Anyway, I’m doing my own version of a Santa track. I ordered something from overseas as a Christmas gift. I’ll explain exactly why in another post. The site usually announces the last day to order to get your stuff for Christmas, and this year they didn’t. I ordered fully expecting to receive my package around New Year’s. I was prepared to hand over an IOU on Christmas morning.
And then I got an email saying it has been shipped, and it’s supposed to be here by Christmas Eve. Yippee! And I started to hope. Big mistake.
Here’s how I imagine the postal service working. My package is shipped. Someone buys it an airline ticket, usually first class, and sends it on its way. It is met at the gate (yes, the gate. This is my fantasy, remember?) by a chauffeur who drives it to the next gate and buckles it into its seat belt. This is the long leg of the journey, so it is tucked in with a blanket and it settles in for a 14 hour flight. It has a few drinks, socializes with a couple of B-list celebrities, and it arrives, revived and refreshed, in the good old US of A. It is met by yet another chauffeur who ushers it to a limousine and delivers it to my door. Apparently this is not how it actually works. Who knew?
I got the tracking info on the 19th. My package had traveled all the way from Hong Kong to…Taiwan. I’m not totally up on geography, but it seems like with modern conveniences such as, oh, I don’t know… airplanes? it might have gone further in two days’ time. The next stop on its adventure was Japan, where it spent another couple of days.
I got notice today that my stuff is now in the USA. In Anchorage, Alaska. The tracking estimate still shows it arriving at my house on Monday. Because it never snows in Alaska.Will it get here on time? Doubtful. But I do look forward to seeing what other lovely locations my package gets to travel to.
Frankly, I am envious. That box is having a better vacation than I will this year.
My daily joy: I found my husband the best Christmas present ever. He is going to love it, and I can’t wait to see his face! I’m pretending that I got him boring stuff because he is psychic when it comes to gifts.
I expect his face will look kind of like this.
Becoming Cliche 
Once we flew from Korea to France, with a layover in Russia. Our bags got lost in the shuffle, and when they finally met up with us in Paris a couple days after we arrived, it turns out they got to spend some time in Japan. They are more well-traveled than we are!
Did they show you photos of their trip? It seems only fair. They went to Japan, after all.
I LOVE the way your package travels! I wish I could have gone on vacation with it!
I am going to make it my vacation planner. It will know all the good spots to visit.
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/
My stuff usually travels coach.
And drinks too much.
Mine, too, I think. There’s a definite smell of tequila about it.
In my next life, I definitely want to come back as whatever that well-traveled gift is!
I hope they at least let it out for a bit of sight-seeing.
Got a nasty suspicion that the parcel will keep mum! Fingers crossed it arrives today 😉
I hope your stuff gets there in time!! My iPhone came a day EARLY a few weeks ago and I was not expecting it at all. When I checked, it was supposed to arrive Tuesday but then they changed it to Monday at a later time and I didn’t realize. This caused a mad dash to get it as there have been an increase in package thefts in my area
Ha, my presents were on time. Not easy, you know that in Germany they celebrate already on Christmas Eve. However, DHL actually delivered yesterday (Sunday), yay! Unfortunately they were the wrong presents, and with the complaints department now closed for the holidays I doubt the family will receive the correct gifts before the new year 😦 Keeping my fingers crossed for you and Merry Christmas.
What an interesting way to celebrate a gift! Hubby had this happen last year. Not only did he forget my birthday (Dec. 4), but after my daughter sent me a Sony E-Reader he decided a good gift for Christmas would be some accessories for my reader. One of the items he ordered was a red leather cover to help protect the screen. Of course it didn’t arrive in time for Xmas! We were both so sick last year, we didn’t even open gifts till New Year’s Eve & my gift had still not arrived. It didn’t arrive till mid January. Needless to say, last year didn’t feel very much like a celebration of any kind in December.
So if the present isn’t liked, I guess it will get to travel back to where it came from. Maybe you could get it a different itinerary and seating next to A-list celebs? 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and your family.