For the record, "Yukon Cornelius" and "Frosty the Snowman" were ordered first.  My second order was for the "Coach Reindeer" (the one who told Rudolph to move along -- that was not very kind, poor Rudolph) and "Santa."  The beanbags for "Sam the Snowman" (Burl Ives is the voice for this character -- the one who narrates Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer), "Herbie the Elf" (the one who wants to be a dentist), and the "Abominable Snowman" made up my third order.

These orders were confirmed in three separate emails from CVS, one for each order; and the confirmation emails arrived in the same sequence as that of each order (e.g., the confirmation for the first order arrived first).

On January 4, 2000, I received three emails from CVS indicating that my orders had shipped.  The first email had a time stamp of 17:42:19 GMT (i.e., 42 minutes and 19 seconds past five in the afternoon, Greenwich Mean Time); the second email had a time stamp of 17:42:20; and the time stamp on the third email was 17:42:42.  Unfortunately, the order numbers were not included in the body of emails.  Therefore, I do not know which email was associated with each order.  Given the proximity in which the shipping confirmation emails arrived, I thought that perhaps they did bundle the orders together into one large box or, if not, that they would all arrive simultaneously.

I now know that each order was shipped separately as the second order arrived today (the one with the "Coach Reindeer" and "Santa").  A free "Sam the Snowman" key chain was enclosed (for safety reasons, I cut the key-chain part off of the figure).  Sam, my son, took an instant liking to it; funny how that works.  The other orders were nowhere to be found.  I checked the area near the back door; I looked in the shrubs; I searched behind the concrete planter.  I even looked on the roof.  Nothing, nada, zippo, zilch, absent, uh-uh, not there.  No other boxes anywhere.  Actually, it is just as well.  The boys are going to love opening a "surprise" box on another day.  (Sam is so cute when he spies a box as he shouts "presents, presents, is it? is it?"  Ben, on the other hand, is able to form expectations -- e.g., transforming Batman Beyond -- when the item isn't quite what he wants, well.  Let's just say I've got some parenting to do.)

Fascinating.  Three orders placed at nearly identical times, shipping confirmation emails received at nearly identical times, and, yet, the orders did not arrive at nearly identical times.  I love it.  Anyone who enjoys counting the number of sand granules on the beach would probably enjoy figuring this one out.