Boxing Day
noun
(in
Britain) the first weekday after Christmas, when Christmas gifts orboxes are
given to employees, letter carriers, etc.
Origin:
1825–35
…or in my case, the day I will spend an inordinate amount of
time trying to discover how to pack my presents and clothing, and items I have
been given to take back to Denver with me into the incredibly small box that is
my carry on suitcase. It is at times like this that I remember the passage from
Dave Barry’s The only Travel Guide You’ll
Ever Need By Dave Barry in which he discusses the regular traveler’s
never-ending pursuit for the perfect luggage.
It describes the excitement of coming across the “Perfect
bag for every traveler…” and goes on to describe how it enables the traveler to
pack everything they would ever need for a world-wide tour lasting months and
spanning multiple climes into one easy-to-pack bag. The ad (in his piece) goes
on to promise that you will be able to “…pack everything you need for the your
trip…” including a fully appointed bathroom “…into a bag the size of the
average piccolo case.”
I need one of those for this (and every) trip. Because no
matter how much I plan, I never have enough packing space for the return trip.
I never learned how to pull my dad’s trick of stating emphatically that “it all
fit in there on the way here, it will fit on the way home … dammitalltohell!”For
me that never works even with the curse compressed into a single word.
I have to live in the real world where I acquire things as I
travel. On my trips to London, I pick-up beer to bring home that I cannot get
here (Tanglefoot… Yumm!!!); when I go to places on business that I want to
remember, I get souvenirs; and when I come to Minnesota at Christmas, I get
presents. What I need, is a suitcase that is made out of a fully functioning
TARDIS. Until then, “Boxing Day” in Minnesota will consist of a bunch of
complex mathematics designed to make a box hold more than its actual volume of
stuff doe my trip home.
Wherever you are today, I hope that your Boxing Day is
restful and that you can bask in the afterglow of Christmas with your loved
ones!
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