Locking Up Christmas

With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, it is time to look forward to Christmas. We won't be traveling for Christmas, so I have to get gifts purchased, wrapped and mailed to our family in Bama. 

I think I mentioned that I was going to torture my nieces and nephews with the gift of cash. I am just not a fan of giving them cash in an envelope, so I have to make it challenging for them. The youngest is 16, so they are old enough to figure it out. 

I had a friend ask if I could give a little bit more information about my plan so maybe they could torture someone in their life. I am more than happy to oblige. 

I started off with the basic supplies shown below + some cold hard cash.  

You need:

• Plastic box with lid - IRIS USA Medium Modular Supply Case on Amazon. If you can't find this one, you can get something similar.  The dimensions are 5.24 x 8.4 x 1.98 inches.
• 4 ft 3mm luggage security wire with loops at both ends
• Luggage lock with a four number combination
• Small Box to put the cash in and wrap - I got 3.5 X 3.5 X 1 size boxes but anything smaller than the plastic box would work. 

Then the fun begins! The only way I could think of that the kids would not be able to wiggle the cable off the end of the plastic box to get it opened, was to drill a hole through the box. Judy helped me think through the best way to do it. She has an engineering brain that works great at figuring things out. 

I used my biggest drill bit! Look at that thing! Made me feel like a boss! I opened each plastic box and braced the end I was going to drill against a 2 X 4 to support the plastic so it would crack under the pressure of the drill. Then I just pressed down gently with the drill and let it rip! On some boxes, the drill made a nice clean hole - on others it was kind of a raggedy mess with pieces of plastic that had to be cut off with scissors. Never quite figured out what I was doing different that was causing some to go great and some not so great.  But in the end, they all had holes big enough to run the wire through. 

I put the cash in the smaller box and wrapped it with a ribbon.  Then I ran the wire through the holes on the end of the box and over the box and then shut the lid. 

Next up is the only tricky part...figuring out how to wrap the wire all around the box and make it tight enough to just barely meet for the lock to go through both loops of the cable.  I ended up twisting the wire over and over and over on the top of the box to tighten up the cable so it would just barely meet.  I wanted it to be snug. 

I picked four random numbers out of thin air and followed the directions on the lock to set the combination for each lock. I made a list of all the combinations with each person's name, just in case they can't figure it out. 

For the final step I used a black and red sharpie to write the four numbers of their lock in random order all over the outside of the box. I am not sending any clues or instructions.  The four numbers on the box entered on the lock in the correct order will open the lock and let them access their gift. 

Two down....eight to go! 

Doesn't this make you happy that I am not your Aunt? 

Hopefully, this will be memorable - and not too hard!  I will keep you posted on the response I get from the kids! 
 

The Happiest of Thanksgivings

We had the most relaxing, wonderful, Thanksgiving ever.  In all of my life, I have never been responsible for the entire meal for Thanksgiving. My boys are not very hard to please, so our menu wasn't anything too elaborate. I tried to focus on what they really liked. 

They both got up bright and early and we were in the kitchen together all morning. I was the head chef, making sure we were organized, so that we prepped and cooked in a logical order and everything was ready to go for lunch. I gave them recipes and pulled out all the ingredients for them and they did the rest! They sliced, diced, chopped, shredded, boiled, measured, whisked, whipped, sautéed...the whole nine yards. We had a couple of uh-ohs, but nothing we couldn't recover from.  

There was laughing, yelling, a little cussing, people going on and off break, a few spills and dirty dishes out the wazoo! But y'all we made a fabulous meal!  Here is what was on our menu! 

Honey Baked Ham...Crunchy Romaine Salad...Asparagus Wrapped with Bacon...Macaroni and Cheese (hit of the day!)...Mashed Potatoes and Gravy...Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole...Rolls....Cheesecake from Junior's in New York....Brownie Trifle.

This is my carb heavy plate! I stayed away from the meat. No honey baked ham or bacon on my roasted asparagus....but I did eat some of that delicious sugar crisp from the honey baked ham! And I did indulge in plenty of dairy. 

This picture of them eating cracks me up!  They were into it!  I think all three of us were impressed with our efforts and the results! We did it! 

After we had our fill, we rolled over to the couch and took a nap! The boys went to their Dad's later in the afternoon and I took my time cleaning up the kitchen. 

I had a smile on my face all day and into the night. I loved spending the day in the kitchen with my boys. They are hilarious and make me laugh more than any other humans on earth. I think they had fun too! 

I hope you had a lovely day with your people! Bring on the holidays!