Christmas Shopping

Now that my list of people to shop for has contracted through deaths of some relatives and others moving away, I'm basically left with my two brothers, sister-in-law, and nephew. This year, I'll add my aunt, who has invited me and my big brother to Christmas dinner.

My big brother has a condo with enough stuff already (his statement) so he doesn't really want things that take up space permanently. For several years, I've been giving him a twelve-pack of beer, and he likes that. I used to send my nephew a calendar, but recently I've gotten away from that and just send a check with a Christmas card.

The fun(?) comes with kid brother and sister-in-law in Japan. After spending exorbitant amounts to send things from here for several years, I decided that it makes more sense to order through amazon. I had not trouble ordering a book for my brother. Next, I looked for chocolates to send both of them and discovered that I would be able to get the US branch to ship them to Japan. So I went to amazon.jp. I found some nice chocolates and while I was at it a couple of CD's for my s-i-l. Then I had to register. At one stage they asked me to tell how my name is pronounced. I tried to skip that item, but it came back and insisted I enter my name in hiragana, one of two Japanese phonetic alphabets. Well I don't know hiragana, and I don't know how to get it from our keyboards.

Maybe I could have spent several hours tracking down the hiragana and finding how to type it, but I gave up and went back to amazon in the USA. I found some adequate pot holders and requested 2-4 day delivery (this was on December 19). After I put all the info in, they told me that it would arrive after Christmas — or more precisely somewhere between December 22 and 28.

Well, I wanted to be sure there would be something for her on Christmas day, so I e-mailed my brother and asked him if he could order a CD and the chocolates for me from amazon.jp. No problem, except that the candy would only get there in January some time. So he ordered the CD. I asked him to order chocolates of his choosing, which he did. So all is well. Then I got notification that the pot holders had shipped and estimated delivery was December 23.

Even with the frustrations, it's still better than spending over $100 to ship $40 worth of gifts. And of course, if I hadn't waited until this week, I might have found things at amazon in my country that I could send there and have them arrive in time.