Packages are one of the great joys of the expat experience. Even better when the package comes to your house and you are home to receive it. And even better than that is when it makes it past customs and you don’t have to cross Middle Earth to Mordor (the Zollamt) to pick the damn thing up.
Happily yesterday that was the situation. Yay! My parents were sending me some pictures, but figured they might as well fill a USPS flat rate box so check this out…
Darn right that’s nearly four pounds of pure sugar and awesomeness. They send me the strangest things… in this box was a promotional t-shirt from a 5k run/walk, a children’s book in English/Spanish that appears to have come from a cereal box, and some moisturizer I had requested. Sehr important for summer… for real, this stuff is great….
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| Via target.com |
It’s the only thing I’ve found that doesn’t get super greasy and yucky on your face, so I highly recommend. But SPF 50 seems a little extreme. They sent 30 despite the fact that my dad said anything over 15 is pointless. But my dad is also gifted with the ability to get ridiculously tan in about 10 minutes with almost never burning.
But the real purpose of the package was the photos. Back when we lost my grandma, I wrote about it and how upset I was at not being able to find any pictures of just the two of us together. So I tasked my parents with going through photos when they were at the house and seeing if they could find anything for me… and happily they were able to find a few. It would have been my g-mas birthday this week, so I’d like to share a couple here.
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| I’m wondering if someone tried to give me bangs here. Not cool. |
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| Exactly what I remember. |
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| First trip to Florida! |
Can you spot the theme of my childhood?
Heather Goes to Deutschland 
Weren't you cute! I saw the books! But I also wondered, did you and your grandma always sit with her on your right?
Haha, thanks. There was a time…
I was shooting for books as the theme, but the seating thing is interesting. I can really only give you a definitive explanation on one photo… in the second picture we are at my grandparent's old house, and she always sat at the end of the couch with the lamp. That was for sewing, so if you look at the photo you can see a cross-stich frame next to her. The other ones were just an odd coincidence I guess. 🙂
Care packages are the best!…especially when containing chocolate! 😉
xx
Kecia
http://www.couturezooblog.com/
Agreed!
Cliff and Sarah (Regensblog) have figured out the magic number to avoid the Zollamt, as detailed here: http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/05/breaking-news-good-customer-service-and-secrets-revealed-at-the-zollamt1/
“The limit for packages marked as gifts to be delivered customs-free is 45€!”
That's damn handy to know, I think.
I did see that post and agree that it is quite handy to know. My concern was not the value of the package so much as the contents, as it may or may not have contained something that probably should not have been shipped here. *coughs*