Goodies Into the Mail

Down in the Dungeon, we had a Yule Exchange!


Slytherin Yule!!
I had a great deal of fun finding things for my Spoilee, who happens to be a glass artist, too (except a REAL one - as in has stuff in churches, etc). I misremembered the mailing date, though, so mid-week last week, there was a flurry of activity one morning.

	First, there was All The Stuff. I had fun getting it all. Matchy-matchy notecards, notebook, pad & pencil (DPN) cases; shiny-matchy pen, notebook & magnets; a cute keychain calculator; tape measures (including some cool peel-n-stick tape measure), and, of course, the owlet twins, Bert & Ernie. (The whole thing was allegedly and ornament exchange, With Other Stuff.)
Then there was the Getting Creative With Wrapping. I did the obligatory "presents hidden in other presents" that everyone, regardless of age, thinks is silly out loud - but secretly loves.
	Then it was a case of getting everything (and everyone) into the box I'd lugged home from work the night before. Tucking things carefully into brown paper would, hoepfully, protect *and* keep from shifting.
Then, it was a case of making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Which, of course, I had.
	So, a few things had to come out of the box, then go back in, then get nestled back into the protective brown paper. About three times, before I got everything to fit, finally. (It wasn't that much stuff, and the brown paper didn't take up that much extra space; I think there was a tiny spacewarp on the lid of the box or something. And I managed to forget to add the card enough times that I'm pretty sure it was sneaking out of the box on its own.)
Then I stuffed the CUTEST OWL ART ever, with a greeting, down one side of the box. (Seriously. Cutest. OWL. EVER. Must track it down and attempt to get real, live prints - I just adore it!)
Then, it was time to decorate the box. Because if you've ever gotten a package from me, you know: the box is all this lovely blank space just waiting to be filled up with pictures. Since it's a Slytherin exchange, the art kinda flowed all by itself. And yes, I own red and green sharpie markers - doesn't everyone?
Off to the post office (which isn't open at 8am any more, so it was more like "take bus in the cold to block next to post office, walk up steep hill, discover post office is closed, trudge the half mile to work, work for a while/warm up, then trudge half mile back to post office, mail thing, trudge back to work, make hot cocoa) to get proof of mailing, which I wanted to be able to show to one of the exchange's Organizer Elves, as I was about a week late with the shipping.
Then it was just waiting for my Spoilee to receive her package. I was hoping she'd take a photo - but she took a bunch. The following four pics are from her. This first one is The Loot emptied out of the box...	Photo from Spoilee
Photo from Spoilee	... and here it is all unwrapped.
Photo from Spoilee	Bert and Ernie fluttered around the house, before finding the highest point on which to perch, while they wait for the Holiday Tree to go up. Plus, let's be real, they're hoping that someone will drop food so they can swoop down and grab it before it hits the floor. (They're like that.)
And the Shiny Magnets formed into an appropriately Snake-y shape on the refrigerator door. Wheee!	Photo from Spoilee

The day I mailed the package, while I was trugding back to work the second time, I noticed this sweater at one of the Hip Cool Stores(tm). It matched the notebook, pad, cards & pencil cases I'd just sent. I didn't get it for her, since it cost Actual $$, but I totally thought about it. Plus, I would've had to find a box and go back to the post office a third time - and that wasn't going to happen!


Once my package from my Spoiler arrives, I'll let you know what sort of goodies I got!!