Back when our kids & nieces & nephews were younger, we would spend Christmas Eve at DH's parents' house in the late morning/early afternoon & Christmas Eve at my parents' house in the early evening.
And, several Christmases ago, we were dependent upon DH's Christmas bonus for all our Christmas shopping. Well, that year, for whatever reason, he didn't receive his bonus until about a week before Christmas.
And, I, for whatever insane reason, still thought we had time to order presents online. Or, maybe, what I wanted to buy I could only get online. I can't remember now.
So, w/ his Christmas bonus, I ordered online most of our kids' & their cousins' presents a week before Christmas.
And, then, there was a winter storm, & shipping was delayed.
The items were arriving at our local Fed Ex facility the morning of 12/24, but would not be delivered until 12/26. And there were several other people in town in the same situation.
And I don't even remember now how we found out the packages were at our local Fed Ex facility, but DH & I (along w/ BUNCHES of other people) spent Christmas Eve at Fed Ex... waiting in a VERY long line to hopefully (& it wasn't even guaranteed that we would be able to) pick up our packages in person.
And I still remember the poor, harried Fed Ex workers yelling out customers' names.
We got the items from the 1st truck - went back to DH's parents' house (after missing the family meal) & wrapped the presents we had for the 1st set of nieces & nephews. We then went back to Fed Ex to wait on the next truck to be unloaded. We eventually made it my parents' house (& missed the meal there as well) where we wrapped more presents for that set of nieces & nephews. And then drove to DH's brother's house w/ a present for his one of his that hadn't come on the 1st truck.
It was AWFUL and so embarrassing! And we still refer to it as the Fed Ex Christmas.
And I have NEVER waited that close to Christmas to order anything again.