12-03-2025 — Making Progress

Howdy all. The cold front is sticking around for at least another 7-10 days. And talk of single digit temperatures, with below zero ( Fahrenheit ) real-feel in a couple days. Brrr. Just minor snow events though, and winds supposedly not gusting too much above 30mph, and only for a few hours now and then.

I’d estimate our high temperatures have been about 10-12 degrees below so-called average for a couple weeks now. So this year has been cold and wet, warm and dry, cool and dry, and now cold and damp. And always windy. So not nice.

I’ve been working on my Xmas packets some more today. I have all boxes with package taped bottoms. And, I have been filling them with items that will each need some bubble wrap. The pile of stuff waiting to be sorted and assembled is getting smaller though.

I have about a dozen (maybe more) of these already in the family “labeled” boxes in the living and family rooms. Yes, I 3D printed each of the lanterns, and every panel you see plus many more panels. Each will arrive surrounded with bubble wrap, and an LED candle for inside.

Right now, each box looks something like this inside. A retail card at the bottom and about 5-7 3D printed, or laser cut ornaments inside.

You can see the floor in here now. Every one of those boxes has contents in it. Hand selected for the temporarily family label on the outside.

The many boxes here are gone. Only things left are a bin of goodies that will disappear before the holidays (I hope) and stuff for my own decorations.

I have one more super large assembly job to do. It will make those lantern assemblies look like they were easy. Then, the tougher part of bubble wrapping. And then the even tougher for me part, of doing a Xmas letter and signing the cards.

I need to take these things,

and hopefully stuff them in these things. Sounds easy enough.

I’m so glad that with the prepaid USPS boxes, I can just request the USPS stop by and pick them up. No waiting at a post office line. Standing for hours with people all around, is not my idea of how to Enjoy Life