We are Ready
RK and I were up until after 2:00 this morning finishing up the wrapping. It was our third marathon night.
A while back I started buying one kind of wrapping paper for GlitterGirl, another for TwinkleToes, another for my side of the family, and another for RK’s side of the family. All of them color coordinate, but are different enough they stand out if you know what you’re looking for. This year I let GG and TT choose theirs, and TT chose a Tinkerbell paper and GG chose one with beautiful depictions of the reindeer milling about and enjoying themselves.
The bags aren’t so easy to do this way, as you just buy a bunch of difference sizes and hope for the best (or, I do anyway). However, if you have the packages sorted under the tree by type of paper, then just put the bags that go with them in the midst of them. We end up placing GG’s in the back portion of the left side, TT’s in the back portion of the right side, and then my family’s in one of the front quadrants and his family’s in the other. My family’s gifts go with us on Christmas Eve, his families are given out later Christmas day, and the girls (of course) open theirs well before sunrise on Christmas morning. Oh, gifts for RK and I, and for our coworkers and neighbors, are wrapped in the leftovers of the previous year’s paper — LOL.
RK only wraps my presents, but he acts as support staff for me as I wrap everyone else’s. He finds my pen when I lose it (which seemed to happen about every ten minutes last night, uggg), he brings me more gifts when I’ve depleted the last stack, he walks the finished gifts to the living room to put them under the tree, and he heads any child off who might wake up and wander towards our room.
RK made fun of me the first year we did this, but he doesn’t anymore as it simplifies things so much on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and even before, when we grab the gifts for our coworkers on our last workday before the holidays. We still have to double-check labels as we load the car to go to my parents’ house Christmas Eve, but we’re no longer on hands and knees searching packages to be sure we have them all. And the girls have to check labels on bags Christmas morning but they can easily just reach and grab the wrapped presents that belong to them, and don’t accidentally end up opening the wrong gift.
At any rate, all of the gifts are under the tree. Yes!!!!!
I was off work yesterday and we spent the better part of the day playing Bananagrams, Scrabble Slam, Scrabble Flash, and Rory’s Story Cubes. Last night we watched Arthur Christmas (new movie, love it), The Santa Clause, and The Grinch. The night before we rode around and looked at Christmas lights while drinking eggnog milkshakes and singing Christmas songs. One of GG’s friends will be spending the day with us today, and we don’t have definite plans but I figure a combination of sappy Christmas shows, games, and maybe a few arts and crafts thrown in should do the trick.
Sometimes I think I’m the luckiest mom on the planet. I have two wonderful, smart, funny, happy, beautiful girls; a job I love that helps give RK and I the means to support them; and a wonderful husband who happens to be my soul mate.
I’m thankful every day for what I have, but more-so over the past couple of days. TwinkleToes was cuddled with me in bed last night while we watched The Santa Clause, and GlitterGirl on the other side of her snuggled in RK’s arms and holding my hand, and everything was so perfect I almost cried.
I wish the same kind of happiness for everyone. If everything isn’t going your way, just stop a minute and count your blessings. It can do wonders for your peace of mind.
December 22nd, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I only put gifts to us under the tree. Several come mailed so I can’t coordinate, but there are only 3 of us.
I used to color coordinate wrapping paper so I knew which ones needed to be shipped and which to keep in the bag for local gift exchanges.
December 22nd, 2012 at 1:33 pm
We leave tonight to visit our relative’s daughter. We are also lucky that all our kids are healthy, happy and just wonderful to each other and us. We are not doing present presents this year, just spending our time on vacation. The kids don’t need anything and they don’t want anything. They just gave to charities of their choice. We use to, when they were young wrap all the presents under the tree in different paper. The kids never knew which presents were theirs. On Christmas morning each were given a piece of wrapping paper, and then they knew which presents to unwrap. Being from a European family we did Christmas Eve in a big way too. We also celebrate my husband’s American traditions as well. He is also half European.
I am very grateful for my health, my amazing husband who has worked so hard for his family so I could stay home and be a mother to our children. Happy that most of my children are grown up now, and sad that time has gone by so quickly at the same time. I am grateful for my lovely caring family as well. My parents raised me in a very liberal home full of fun, discipline, exploration, knowledge, independence and to learn to think for ourselves. They were also helicopter parents, and I am along with my brother and sisters are so glad that they kept us safe and secure. We owe so much to them and the way we turned out.
December 22nd, 2012 at 1:59 pm
Thats a brilliant way to do it RQ. I end to wrap all our gifts while the girls are still at school, and hide them!!! We get the girls up on Christmas Eve around 9-10pm so we can go and drive round all the homes here that have Xmas lights and the ones who have garages full of Xmas ornaments. We have been doing this the last 6 yrs and will continue to do so each year.
I use all sorts of Xmas paper on the gifts…I just love ll the different colours under the tree …once we finally get the girls back into bed on Xmas eve after the drive.
But we do count our blessings with having the girls each day, even with DD2 who can be a handfull at times :-) like when she is supposed to be having a nap and you turn round and she has her shorts on her head laughing!!!
Merry Christmas to all on RQ and especially to you and your family RQ!!!
December 23rd, 2012 at 9:53 am
We do something similar in our house with the wrapping paper. I use one kind for each of our 3 kids and don’t worry with tags. For several years, I “tortured” my older boys by not telling them which paper belonged to which kid. When the boys have one gift that is a gift for both of them to share, I wrap the present with a patchwork of the scraps of both kinds of paper. They spend the days leading up to Christmas trying to figure out whose paper is whose. It is a lot of fun!
All of the gifts that leave our house (extended family, friends, co-workers) go under another tree located in another room . Several years ago, just after we adopted our daughter, I started a special China tree with decorations that are Oriental. Even though it is much smaller than our other tree, it is my favorite.