It seemed like a good idea at the time

It seemed like a good idea at the time. (tm)

In an effort to save on shipping, wrapping, and effort I had a great idea:  Send the URL of our Amazon.com wish lists to everyone and have the items shipped directly to us.  Dan and I religiously track packages [junecloud.com], so we'd know which boxes are presents.  Then just smack a bow on top, and put with the other presents until Christmas morning!  And then we wouldn't look like slackers for doing the same thing.....

So right after Thanksgiving, Dan's mom e-mailed to say that packages were coming.  She loved the idea of not having to collect, wrap and re-ship everything.  She also said there would be gift notes inside to tell us who gets what and from whom.  Perfect!

Then a package arrives that isn't from Amazon.com, and we have no idea what's inside.  It's addressed to Dan... so we figure it must be a present.  But from whom?  A few days later, Dan is talking to one of his sisters and she mentions that some of our gifts have shipped.  Ah, mystery solved.

Except that more UPs (Unexplainable Packages) keep arriving. 

"Um, your mom said we had 3 coming?"

"Right, those 3 on the corner. And we know these 2 are from Kelly." 

"Supposedly.  But I think that ones a duplicate.  It's from the same company." 

"Ok... so who are these 5 from?" 

"I dunno, Jennifer?" 

"Um, but what if we're wrong?  How are we going to know who sent what?"

And then the realization hit.

We will be opening gifts without knowing who sent them, therefore having to make fools of ourselves during the Christmas Day Family Teleconference by asking who sent what.

This episode of "It seemed like a good idea at the time"(tm) brought to you by the annoying traditions of the season.  It may be a lot of work, but just wrap the presents and mail them yourself.  At least shipping was free one-way.