Warped Wrapping

Happy Monday!  Ready or not, one week until Christmas!  Let's marvel at the soft glow of a Christmas tree.  We really should have these soft white lights in the house all year long.

Please notice that all ornaments have been removed from the bottom two feet of our tree.  We have the worst dog in the world to thank for that.  He removes the ornaments and leaves them all over the house.  Thankfully, he doesn't destroy them.  Just takes them off the tree and carries them around. Very helpful.

I am so ahead of schedule with shopping this year that I have had time to curl up with a book and a hot cup of coffee for a couple hours for the last couple of weekends.  How nice is that?  I am currently reading Brene' Brown's "The Gifts of Imperfection - Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are".  So good.  It is definitely in the self-help aisle of the book store, but very insightful and should be mandatory reading for all humans.  I am over analyzing all my feelings now and trying to figure out if I am being real, honest, vulnerable or just a whack job. Jury is still out.

Also, I think I am safe to embrace the me that is a creative (hateful) Christmas present wrapper.  Let me invite you in for a peek into my world of warped wrapping this Christmas!

I knew I was giving cash money for several gifts this year and it is just so BORING!  I put on my thinking cap, searched the interwebs and rounded up some fun ideas for giving cash.  Then I invited over my sweet friends and they helped me carry out my plans, because sometimes crazy needs some company!  Here are three boxes I put together for my nephews who are all older teens.

The first one is a box of whole walnuts.  My friend Judy was a wiz at cracking the nuts with very little damage and once they were opened and emptied, we rolled up cash inside and hot glued the shells back together.  You cannot tell that it is anything but a box full of nuts.  I wrote the note with some $ in hopes that they would understand there was cash money to be had!  Fun or mean?  You decide. 

The second box is a ton straws cut into thirds with cash rolled up tightly in some of the straws.  There are lots of empties! Won't they just have the most fun digging through all those straws to find the ones with cash. Then they get to remove and unroll all those dang $1 bills!   Fun or mean?  Still on the fence?

The last box is my personal favorite.  Me and Chip took on the onerous task of eating a ton of tootsie rolls and saving the wrappers.  Then Connie and Ashley figured out the best way to roll cash into the perfect replica of a tootsie roll!  We combined a ton of real tootsie rolls with cash tootsie rolls and you cannot tell the difference!  Fun or mean?  Come on, that is just some good Christmas fun! 

Now, these next two are leaning toward mean, but I love them so much! 

I got a really sturdy and cheap Christmas tin, put some cash inside and then wrapped this puppy with as many zip ties as I could fit around the box.  The zip ties are Christmas colors!  Aren't they festive? Wes is going to be a busy boy cutting those off!  Everyone has to have that one crazy Aunt! 

How about this little festive package wrapped with chain and a padlock?  Nothing says "Hallelujah, Our Savior is born!" like chains and padlocks.  I did two of these kind of presents for two of the smarty pants guys in the family.  The four numbers written on the package are the four numbers to the padlock combination.  They just have to figure out the correct code, open the padlock, remove the chain to get to their gift.  I am not sure how many number combinations they will have to try to pop the lock, but won't that be a fun Christmas activity to keep them busy?  Sure hope I wrote down the right numbers!   

It did take some time to come up with these ideas and put them together but I enjoyed it way more than fighting a crowd at the mall!  Hopefully, they will enjoy the spirit with which I wrapped them and won't ban me from future family gatherings! 

Anyway, that is all I have to share today.  Hope you are finding some time to restore yourself and reflect on your blessing during this wonderful time of the year!