The Busiest Christmastime of the Year

Chapter 2 - Black Friday

Julietta

At 6:32 a.m., I was busy preparing myself to get ready to go to the post office so I can pick some letters for the post office's yearly Christmas program. Before picking up my car keys, I went to the kitchen to cook a microwaveable breakfast sandwich and pour myself a glass of orange juice.

After finishing my microwaveable sandwich and orange juice, I went upstairs to brush and floss my teeth, and straighten and tie my hair into my usual ponytail. Then, I headed back downstairs to grab my car keys, put on my winter coat, and my boots, and headed to the car to drive to the post office.

Once I made it to the post office, I noticed that Kara Peregrine's car was parked next to mine. I couldn't believe that it was a coincidence that she was going to do Operation Gift Cheer, too.

As we spoke to each other while we were about to go inside the post office, we had a short conversation that we would make this year the best Christmas of the century by making a difference in many kids' lives. We agreed to one another that we would try to fulfill as many Christmas wishes as we can, but we also needed to keep track of our budgets. After all, we do not want to be in debt after spending hundreds of hard-earned cash on the most expensive gift requests.

Suddenly, we came upon a long line of other people, so I thought it should take up to 15 minutes for us to be at the front of the line.

Once the last person in front of me and Kara had left with some kids' letters, I told the post office clerk that Kara and I were going to partake in the Operation Gift Cheer program.

The clerk understood us, so she allowed us to choose up to ten letters from any of the plastic bins.

Each bin was categorized into the following four groups depending on the number of kids in a family: one kid, two kids, three kids, and four or more kids. For the letters categorized in the other three bins after the one for a single kid, those letters were stapled together.

Kara and I were considering fulfilling letters for one kid or two because a family with three or more kids would mean spending more money, which also leads us to lose lots of our cash.

We checked through the first bin to see if there were any kids' letters who are not asking for anything too pricey, but Kara told me that if we shop online, there would be a 24% discount for any toy, game, book, clothing, or anything else.

Considering her advice, I agreed with Kara, so I shuffled through the pile of letters for the single kids, and I chose four random letters. Kara chose four letters, too, but she took those four from the top of the pile.

Before we were going to leave the post office, the clerk pulled up two clipboards with the waivers on them, as well as two pens. We each grabbed a pen, thoroughly read through our given waivers, and wrote our names at the bottom of the papers. Then, we handed the clipboards and pens back to the clerk. On our way out, she also wished us good luck in fulfilling our chosen letters.

Kara

I waved 'goodbye' to Julietta, and I got into the driver's seat in my car. As I fastened my seatbelt -- but did not turn on my car yet -- I began reading through the four letters I picked.