Christmas Again!

We just returned home, last evening, from a whirlwind trip to Carlsbad, NM, to celebrate a late Christmas with my mom and with Tim, who joined us there.

The visit was wonderful, although there was a bit of drama running under the surface and driving me crazy! Let me explain.

On December 28, Dan placed an order through Amazon.com, although the actual vendor was TheNerds.net, for a flat-screen TV. This TV was to be a Christmas present for my mom from the entire family - Chris, Kelsey & kids, Tim, and Dan & me. Since we already had plans to drive to Carlsbad on Tuesday, January 8, we had the TV shipped to my mom's good friends, Pat and Gloria, who live right next door to her. The confirmation of the order said that the expected date of delivery was Friday, January 4. No problem, since we weren't planning on our gift exchange until Wednesday evening.

Within a couple days of placing the order we received an email altering the expected delivery date to Monday, January 7. That would still work and, as Dan kept telling me, there was no need to worry.

When we got to Carlsbad on Tuesday evening, we made a quick stop at Pat and Gloria's house before going to my mom's. They told us that the TV had NOT been delivered and that they had heard NOTHING from the shipping company. That news put me over the edge. I was a wreck on the inside, while trying put on a calm and happy face for Mom.

We knew, from checking the online tracking, that the TV was sitting in Odessa. So, on the next morning, Wednesday, Pat called them. He was told that it would be delivered that day, after 4:00 p.m. That wasn't ideal, but it would work. We'd still be able to bring it to Mom's house for our gift exchange, which was planned for 7:00 that evening.

Just before 7:00 I called Pat. He had just been on the phone with the shippers, and they now said it would NOT get delivered that day, but should get there the next day. I was a devastated. Poor Mom. She had waited more than two weeks for her Christmas, and now she'd have to be told that her gift hadn't yet arrived. Not only that, but if the TV didn't arrive in time the next day, how would we get it all hooked up and teach her how to use it? We had to leave early Friday morning.

I had wrapped up six different boxes for Mom to open that evening. Each one was a teaser about what her gift WASN'T. Of course, my plan had been to present her with the TV at the end. But because of the delayed delivery, after she opened all of the boxes we were only able to give her a PROMISE of a TV to come :-(  Mom took it pretty well, but I was really sad.

The next morning, Thursday, I called the shippers, and they said the TV would arrive around 1:00 p.m. that day. I put all my hope on that promise, and Tim and I took Mom shopping for a cabinet on which to set the TV, whenever it arrived. We found one and brought it back to her house, where Tim and I (mostly Tim) assembled it.

As promised, the TV finally arrived right about 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. Dan took the lead in getting it all hooked up to her cable box and programming the remote, and, finally, we placed the TV on top of the new cabinet. It looked great! At LAST Mom had her new TV. We were even lucky in finding a senior center that was willing to come that same day and haul off her big, old, heavy tube-style TV.  They seemed happy to get it.

Mom's TV has built-in capability to receive Netflix, so we signed her up for a free month to see if she enjoys it enough to subscribe. I think she will. That evening we tried it out by watching The King's Speech.

It was stressful waiting for the delivery, but in the end all was well and Mom was happy. That was what really mattered.

Thursday evening we were treated to one of New Mexico's gorgeous sunsets. It was a great way to end our Christmas visit with Mom and Tim. Friday morning Tim headed back to Albuquerque, and Dan and I drove east to Temple.