Wrapped with Love!

I just finished wrapping the kiddos Christmas presents!  I love that feeling.  Everything is snug under the tree and I have no fear of kiddos peeking at the stash of gifts.  There was cute talk today that they knew where the gifts were hidden, but no one peeked.  Funny kiddos.  I don’t think that they actually looked at anything, but I’m glad to remove the temptation.  I remember the year I found all my gifts.  I loved the Christmas presents I received  but Christmas morning was disappointing.  All the surprise was removed!  I would hate for my kids to have the same experience!

Over the years we have developed a simple wrapping system that works for our family.  We like to keep the kids guessing which gifts are for them.  I buy 5 different, coordinating wrapping papers and wrap each persons Christmas presents only in one color of paper.  This way I don’t have to make name tags for the gifts.  It also builds the kiddos excitement.  They like to guess which wrapping paper is theirs.  I love hearing them speculate.  Tomorrow will begin the chatter about who’s color is who’s.  Unfortunately the kids helped me wrap Chucks gifts so that narrows down the choices.

Wrapping gifts always reminds me of my Dad.  Growing up we wrapped all the extended family presents together.  Dad has an amazing skill to keep the patterns of the paper all lined up, edges square and looking store wrapped .  Mom wrapped too, but her specialty was making all the gifts pretty with ribbons, cards and extra touches.  Ken I think your skill leaned more to garbage bags and packing tape:)

As I was sitting on the floor with a pile of slightly wonky gifts surrounding me, I was giggling.  If Dad was watching the chaos in my living room, he would be giving me pointers or at least bringing me the right box to fit the gift in.  I’m pretty sure the wonky, wrapped with love look of my gifts is because I was to lazy to find boxes.  I think that is the best way to describe the gifts…wrapped with Love!

On a side note, this might be the first post that have done without pictures.  You will all have to wait for Christmas morning!  How do you wrap your gifts for kiddos; do you have a fun system?  I’d love to hear your wrapping traditions and memories.