Blogmas 2022 •Day Fourteen•

11 days until Christmas and I am not finished yet! I feel behind still as I normally have everything done and ready by the first week of December, but this year went a little differently. Which is fine, it will all get done in time. I am nearly done with the shopping aspect, I only have stockings left and 2 other people to get something for.

With that said, I am incredibly grateful for delivery drivers and Target drive ups. I have increasingly noticed that stores are incredibly triggering for me because I become highly overstimulated. Does anyone else experience that? I can’t even walk into a HyVee anymore without wanting to immediately rip my hair out and run out of the store. Walmart use to be the only store that was like this for me, but now the only one I can feel decently chill in is the Target near my house. Not the Target across town, nope! Only the one near me as it’s never as busy as the others. I was thinking the shopping alone could make someone completely dread the holidays, even if they aren’t celebrating.

I try to remember what life was like before drive-ups started. It didn’t feel chaotic then like it does now. 🤷‍♀️Anyways, because of that (and being busier these days) most of my items have come from Target, Amazon, and Etsy. As you can imagine, I have had a lot of packages being delivered to our house in the last few weeks.

I wanted to show my appreciation to the delivery people because they have saved my sanity. I bought some snacks and some drinks, printed a little note, and put them outside in a basket on the porch for the delivery people. The kids get excited when they realize someone took something. I have seen them on the doorbell camera and some even say “thank you” as they head back to their trucks. It makes me smile to see them smile when they see the note and grab whatever they want.

I also put together little gifts for other people that we appreciate throughout the year like the kid’s teachers, mailperson, and sanitation workers. I usually do a treat and a gift card, nothing incredibly crazy, but accompanying that with a thank you holiday card to show our appreciation.

Back when Chris was a residential sanitation driver, he would get all sorts of gifts. He always got a ton of baked goodies, boxes of chocolates, and monetary tips. It was exciting every time he came home with something to share with me and the kids. He does commercial stops now, so he doesn’t get all the goodies anymore, but it was fun while it lasted! I love that people think of others in the service industry, without them society would not function.

Do you leave things for service people? If you do, let me know what you do so I can have more ideas!

⛄️ jenn