Has Santa gone South, or what?

First, a turkey tale ...

A wild turkey in New Jersey decided to take his fate into his own hands (er, "wings," as the case may be). Whether it was a case of turkey-cide or simply trying to assume a lower profile identity, he played a game of "chicken" on the New Jersey Turnpike, running in and out of the high speed traffic. Of course, maybe he was just trying to cross the road. (Just in case you are too young to remember WKRP in Cincinnati - turkeys CAN"T fly.) Maybe he was just trying to run away from home over some sort of family squabble (or would that be "gobble"?) In any case, authorities were able to catch him alive and move him to a "more appropriate" location. Let's just hope it wasn't someone's oven. After all that effort on his part, old Tom Turkey deserves a break. (He's already gotten a few "brakes"!)
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Now, back to our promised feature ...

Is the Post Office closing down the North Pole?

For years (since 1954), thousands of children's letters addressed to "SANTA CLAUS, NORTH POLE" have found their way to the Alaskan town of North Pole. There, a team of volunteers opened thousands of letters each year. Their replies to the children were hand-signed by "elves" and were postmarked "North Pole." (Perhaps you received one of these as a child.)

Of course, the sheer volume of letters meant only a small percentage (thousands, though) actually made their way to North Pole, Alaska. Others were handled in side branches throughout the large post offices around the country. At those satellite locations, volunteers opened and read letters to determine true need and when such was found, made efforts to deliver packages to those children - packages signed by "Santa" and his "elves."

Unfortunately, the state of the times caused the postal service to begin restricting the policies of the program known as Operation Santa in 2006. At that point, they began requiring volunteers to show identification in order to participate. Then, last year, a volunteer in Maryland was identified as a registered sex offender and activities in a number of the satellite "Operation Santas" were suspended. (This person was identified and eliminated from the program before he had access to any personal information concerning a child.) The Post Office was forced to institute further regulations concerning the implementation of the program.

This year, Post Office branches wishing to participate In Operation Santa must redact all information identifying the child's last name and address from each letter. This must be replaced with a computerized address code, known only by the Post Office. It is a labor intensive and costly effort. Budgets and labor forces have been cut. Many Post Offices can't do this. The Anchorage Post Office (headquarters for the North Pole, Alaska branch) has determined the restrictions are simply not feasible due to cost cutting efforts. The North Pole Post Office will not be doing Operation Santa this year.

Back in North Pole, where light posts resemble candy canes and streets bear names like Kris Kringle Way and Santa Claus Lane, the elves (town folk) are outraged! Their Mayor, likens it to a Dr. Seuss tale, "It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed the little elves before the fact. They've been working on this for how long?"

The 2100 residents of North Pole pride themselves on their Christmas ties and spirit. One of the tourist attractions is Santa Claus House that sells over 100,000 letters from Santa, postmarked "North Pole." They have a store that features everything Christmas, year round. Visitors to the Post Office get a hand-stamped "North Pole" postmark on postcards and packages. All are devastated by the news. Further upsetting the elves is the fact that out-of-state requests for "North Pole" cancellations will now be handled in Anchorage - some 260 miles to the South!

***Many Post Offices around the country are attempting to continue the Operation Santa charitable efforts. It just won't be happening at the North Pole. So don't be surprised if your child's letters arrive with postmarks from such exotic Toy Workshop locations as Boise, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, or even Miami!

The residents of North Pole are appealing to their Congressional representatives in Washington to take action to save the North Pole tradition before Christmas. I'll keep you posted.

Finally - A creatively productive day!!!

I spent the day painting both orders and some new holiday items for the shop. I have a bunch of stuff to photograph and list by next weekend when I believe (or at least fervently hope) folks will hit the computers with their credit cards handy and start buying - a lot!!

I did get some holiday potholders listed yesterday and I've already sold a few of those. I was also able to list a product that I've been selling off line for a while but had trouble working out a practical means of shipping until now. I haven't sold that one yet but it did get quite a few views yesterday when I first added it to the shop.

In between painting, I also did some major cooking and even caught a little interesting news along the way.

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Did you know, you could actually be arrested for refusing to tip a waitress?

It happened in Bethlehem, PA recently! A group of eight friends reportedly spent a little time at a pub and racked up a $73.00 bill. Service was awful. It took over an hour to get their order and one of the women needed to get up and get their own napkins and silverware. The place was busy but this was a bit unreasonable. They even had to go up to the bar themselves for a soda refill as the waitress "never came back."

When the bill arrived, there was an 18% ($16.00) gratuity tacked onto the bill since it was a large group (not an unusual practice). This was just too much to bear for one of the couples. They went to the bartender in charge and complained about the gratuity when service was pretty much non-existent. Supposedly, the bartender offered to comp the food but demanded the gratuity be paid. They refused to pay the tip but paid the bill for the food in full. The bartender called the police and the couple was actually arrested and charged with theft since the gratuity was officially a part of the bill.

They have a Court date scheduled for next month!

I know they felt it was a matter of principle, but wouldn't it have made more sense for the establishment to simply forgive the tip in the interest of customer service, OR, in the alternative, wouldn't the customers have made out better to pay the tip under protest but accept the comp on the food? To quote my b-i-l, "Let's pretend one of us wasn't stupid here..."

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On a sad note, the U.S.P.O. has discontinued Operation Santa. There's hope it will be resurrected. The Alaskan town that serves as North Pole Central is frantically working to resolve the issue. I'll tell you about this one in tomorrow's post.

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Okay, now for something a little lighter...

Let's look at some of my new stuff!!!!

Here's one of my handpainted tables that I've finally been able to list in my online shop.

I love painting these and they sell fairly well offline but I had been unable to find a practical means of shipping them. I could not locate boxes for packing them and could not afford to swallow the costs of having one of those shipping stores box it for me. (Boxing and packing is where those guys make their profits!)

Recently I read a thread in one of the Etsy forum posts about shipping framed artwork and it was suggested they use boxes available from the U-Haul Stores referred to as "mirror boxes." I checked this out and they do have an appropriate box at a reasonable cost. The actual shipping, once it was boxed, was not outrageous. Look for more of these tables in the shop in the future.

I was also able to get some holiday potholders listed yesterday and today.

Want more details, simply click on the pic for a link to the listing at Splashin (my online shop).

Santa and Frosty are all smiles. Wouldn't these be great Secret Santa items?

I'm sure Granny and Great Aunt Mable would love them in their kitchens, too!

Then there is Mr. and Mrs. Ginger, "the cookie couple." I listed these this morning just before lunch, ran out to the grocery store and came home to find they'd already sold! So, I listed a second batch of them.

These have proven to be the most popular in my offline sales, as well.

This is Ray the Reindeer, he's the lesser known cousin of Rudolph. He wasn't blessed with a glowing nose so he's been relegated to helping Mrs. Clause in the kitchen!

****There's a bonus Christmas Cookie recipe included with every potholder purchase.

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Oh yeah! I mentioned cooking today, too. Seems we bought some oversized produce this weekend. What can I say, I can't resist a bargain. Among our purchases were a bag load of bell peppers at 4 for $1 ( I cut these up for the freezer. We use an inordinate amount of peppers around here. They're as much a staple in my kitchen as flour and eggs!) and a giant head of broccoli for 75 cents! We do love broccoli, so we just cut that up and have steamed some every night this week. (I believe I will be ready for a different green veggie in the next few days. I like it, but enough is enough!) Then there was the large economy size head of cabbage, weighing in at close to 6 lbs!! This was the deal at only 50 cents!! I couldn't resist taking their picture ( the soda can is for size perspective) and sending it off to my b-i-l the "bargain king". He's so jealous!!

Today I shredded all that cabbage and I'll be cooking it tomorrow. I have a great recipe for a hot spicy slaw that tastes like a richly seasoned sauerkraut but is much more colorful. it really looks "harvesty." (Is that a word?)