The post in which Santa and Mrs. Claus are not on the same page

Update: Shipping our two boxes was going to cost $170!  So we're checking the luggage full of "stuff" after all.  And the Guv reminded me to stop stressing out about stuff like this.  Then I reminded him to stop stressing me out about stuff like this.  I think this means we're back on the same page... or at least in the same chapter of the same book, which is close enough!

Last night, Santa and I were packing two boxes of gifts to ship to Vermont for the kids' Christmas.  In past years I admittedly have overshopped by a mile.  This year, I did buy things off of their "Santa lists," but I kept the quantity reasonable and contained -- and their main gifts from us parents are the free items I received at a Leap Frog party plus the experience of ski lessons.  In other words, I feel like I've exercised a huge and successful amount of control.

As ever, Santa thinks it's too much stuff anyway.

On the one hand, I can understand Santa's irritation that we have to ship stuff, an option we exercised because our airline charges for checked baggage, making the cost a wash.  (I do think we'll be able to carry most, if not all, of the stuff back, though.)  Santa thinks it's not environmentally friendly to have stuffed shipped here, then there... and he's right; we've wasted some oil, and that sucks.  On the other hand, we have two children, and it's Christmas.  I want their eyes to marvel at their little piles of the stuff from their Santa lists under the tree on Christmas morning.  Especially because I had to figure it out all myself on top of everything else I do to keep the house running with neither a babysitter nor a housekeeper, I didn't have time to plan exactly how and when and where to ship it so that the environmental impact is lessoned.  I could have held off on most of the shopping until arriving in Vermont, but our shopping options there are blessedly limited.  I wanted to be able to carefully choose a small quantity of good, special stuff  -- since, after all, if we are going to buy some "stuff," I want it to be good stuff, not junk.

So, here I am, in the same place I usually find myself a week before the holidays whether here or in New Jersey or in Vermont.  I've bought all of the gifts, wrapped and sent packages, ordered/addressed/signed/mailed cards, prepared gifts for the teachers, worked my tail off...

And what does Santa bring me for this?  Environmental impact lessons?  Hand-wringing about the quantity of "stuff" when it's the smallest quantity in family history?

Mrs. Claus has learned a lesson.  Mrs. Claus is no longer going to discuss holiday budgets, preparations, or any other holiday-related item with Santa or involve him in any way at all in future Christmases in the Claus household.  He can wake up on Christmas morning and find out alongside the children what has happened.  This new plan will help to ensure that Mrs. Claus does not have homicidal tendencies toward Santa in future years.

And now, Mrs. Claus is leaving for Target to shop for a big, fat lump of coal for a special someone's stocking.