Dear Source:
Thank goodness it is more blessed to give than to receive. All the gifts we gave arrived on time in the states. Only one gift to us arrived by Christmas and that was in a card. After Christmas another gift arrived, again in a card. None of the packages our family has sent us has arrived yet and here it is 2008. I have never in my life seen such a pitifully empty area under the Christmas tree.
My daughter's card with a gift certificate is the one which arrived on time. When I talked with her on Christmas Day, she said she wanted to make a donation in our names to the Humane Society of St. Thomas. She went on line, as she lives in the states, and discovered that she could not just choose an amount she could afford to donate in our names. Hence, we're going shopping with our Home Depot gift certificate and the Humane Society is out of a nice donation.
My husband and I don't know when we will do our gift exchange as nothing we ordered for each other has arrived. Christmas boxes from our other children are apparently still in transit. I ordered a gift for my husband on line on Dec. 19 and paid for second day air. On December 26, I contacted the company. They didn't have a record of the purchase, so I "cancelled" the order. My credit card showed the charge was "pending."
Some of the gifts I would have liked to give but couldn't were from places like Overstock.com which use UPS and won't ship here, whether it is UPS or the USPS. Needless to say, I have to be absolutely desperate to use UPS because their charges are outrageous. Harry & David has wonderful fruit and other food items, but they can't be sent here, even though we are a US Territory. I can't believe there are major businesses in the states which don't recognize us as being part of the US.
Guess we'll be skipping the Doggy Ball and having our Christmas then.
Dena Langdon
St. Thomas
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