Little Boxes

Called my brother, the original Uncle M., the other day to tell him to expect two boxes.  Left him a detailed, yet cryptic, message to take the small box to gift exchange and to leave the big box unopened until after Christmas.  He called back to say that after listening to the message, he was confused because he had only received one box.  One USPS flat rate shipping box.  One MEDIUM flat rate shipping box.  So he was unsure if he had the small box or the big box.  I told him if he was confused about which box he had, then he had clearly not received the big box. 
The truth is that I have never seen the big box. After I mailed the little box, I took the big thing I had to send to the UPS store.  Because I believe everything I see on TV. So I believe they love logistics.  And when I got to the UPS store with my big thing to send, there was a sign right in the window of the UPS store that said, "Let us make your holidays easier."  But when I went inside with my big thing and asked the two UPS ladies to make my holidays easier, they asked me to fill out a form, stand over here with my big thing, and they told me it would cost a 'boatload' to pack and send my big thing because there was not a box big enough and they would have to custom build a box (and I could tell from the tone of their voices that they did not love the logistics of building custom boxes) and what with how busy they were and that with all the temporary help the big thing might not get there in time for Christmas or in one piece, and then they quoted me a price which was indeed a boatload.  It was not at all like the TV commercials. 
So I loaded my big thing back in the pickup and headed on down the road, resigned that the original Uncle M. would be getting a small box without the accompanying big box.  Which would really be confusing and a lot less fun.
But later that day I drove past a second UPS store.  And I tried again.  And at the second UPS store there were two very helpful young men (who I surmised were the aforementioned temporary employees) who loved the idea of sending a big thing across the country, and they happily weighed and measured and offered to build a custom box and told me if there was no rush they would get it there as soon as possible but they couldn't guarantee arrival before Christmas.  Which was fine with me because my choices were narrowed as of now to arriving after Christmas and never arriving at all.  And they quoted me a price which ended up being about half a boatload. So I left the big thing in their capable hands.  And it arrived at Uncle M.'s before Christmas.  In a BIG box.

So if good things come in small packages, then the corollary to that must be that better things come in medium packages, and the best things come in BIG boxes. 
Since our gifts this year did not need to fly anywhere, I wrapped them all in big boxes.