Which side does the stamp go on..

As the holidays are approaching you would think that I was oblivious. Nonsense. I love to go Christmas shopping during the last two days. It’s festive, exciting, and deal-catching. I walked into kbtoys (going out of business) and found a few things for Meghan that were under 10 bucks—a few extras. But before that, I had Nick with me and we had a few stops to make. One was getting his haircut and while he was doing that, I was busy on their comfy couches doing my Christmas cards. Yup, that’s right. I was writing out the envelopes of my Christmas cards and had my huge address book stuffed in my bag. No better time than that last possible moment, dontcha think? Well, actually, they had just arrived in the mail—late, or later than usual for me. But I take great pride in the fact that I got them out in time for Christmas—at least most of the people on my list will receive it in time. (Then again, it is a holiday card—good for another week!!)

As Nick was sitting with me, he was looking handsome with his freshly cut hair. I asked him to help me by stamping the cards. I showed him how to do it or which side the stamp goes on with one example and he was good to go. I finished them within the half hour, with great speed and an extra helper (Nick). And the hair cutting people were quite amused. Then when I gathered the cards I noticed that the last 10, or so, were stamped on the wrong side—the left and not the right. At first I thought about it and wondered where I went wrong. He was doing fine when I first watched him and then BAM he switched sides. I gently brought it up, and gently is the optimal word. And he said, oops it’s just a mistake. A mistake that didn’t have to happen was what I was thinking. And a mistake that required me to actually have to stop in at the post office (fight the lines) to make sure that this was okay instead of just dropping them in the mailbox.

I’m still trying to figure it out, though. I think that Nick becomes lazy with his work is what I’m thinking. He starts off fine and then he becomes disinterested and lazy about “the work.” He does this with his math homework as well. He starts off trying and then the second half of his paper he gets the answers wrong and we have to go back over them. Perhaps it’s just repetitive work that he finds boring? The only other explanation was that he just didn’t think it mattered-- like a sticker. I couldn’t probe him about what he was thinking, because he’s too sensitive and he would have become defensive. And since we were out Christmas shopping and having some fun, I didn’t want to make him feel bad. But it does raise a very big red flag. How is he supposed to hold down a job if he’s lazy about working in general? Will this change for him? He’s 14 and does not have any skills besides talking about superhero movies and playing video games. So I’m a bit worried.

Incidentally, I walked into the post office and the line was long as I anticipated (not sure why, really?) so I started asking the people in line if they thought it was okay. No one knew. But they all became just as curious about getting the answer as I was. So as soon as a free postal worker was available, everyone in line brought it to her attention. The postal worker smiled and took them from me and told me that she would re-stamp them.

There’s the answer.

And today seems like a great day for making cookies (chocolate chip with chocolate kiss) as we do every year, but first, I will fight the crowds and the crazies and see what deals are out there today!!

I’ll do the wrapping at midnight! ;)

**Cookies: make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, add Hersey's kiss last 2 minutes of baking...sooo good especially eaten warm!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!!