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I made the list, but someone didn't check it twice

I've mentioned this a few times, but I have a whole passel of nieces and nephews. I start saving for Christmas in January - there are so many people and gifts to buy.

I order most of my gifts online and have them shipped to my family and everything is cool. I get my order in by the beginning of December and everything is cool I even spring for the extra few dollars for wrapping. I've been doing this for years without incident.

This year, there was an incident.

When I arrived at my Dad's house I checked under the tree for the boxes from the large online retailer I ordered from - there were two smallish boxes present. I thought this was a little odd, but I ordered a lot of kid's books so I figured they might all fit in a small box. I cracked open the first box and found one book inside. I opened the second box and found two books and a couple of DVDs. The shipping manifest suggested that all the gifts I'd ordered were in that box....

Except the box was now empty after removing about 20% of the stuff that was supposed to be in there - so either a box was missing in the house or the large online retailer didn't send my gifts even though they thought they did. Dig?

We searched the house, we searched the yard, we looked in the neighbor's yard. Nothing was to be found. Five of the kids were coming the next day, but I only had gifts for three of them. Awkward!

Eventually we got the situation resolved - three days later - and allegedly the company is shipping the replacement items to my family for distribution. Those damn things had better be wrapped too or I will demand refunds!

I was lucky that they weren't the only gifts the kids were getting, and let's be honest - I give them very boring presents. I give them books. Eventually they like my gift, but they never open my presents and scream with delight - like they did when the TMX Elmo was unveiled.

That's cool kids - I understand I give you boring gifts. Next year I might just cut out the middleman and give you an empty box instead. Or a mutual fund prospectus. Nothing says happy holidays like proxy voting.

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