I recall a moment one Christmas morning long ago when I realized my parents were pretty darn smart. Now that I am a mom of 5, I realize more and more that they were down right geniuses in many respects. You see, no matter how hard I plan ahead, Christmas morning arrives, tags fall off of gifts and for the life of me I can't remember what is for who and what what is! This confusion has resulted in a few awkward moments & unwelcome frustration, and yet with 10 kids my parents always seemed to have things under control (I just heard a roar of laughter from near and far)!
Back to the Christmas when I smiled on my parents....I found their cheat sheet, a seriously amazing cheat sheet detailing their Code. On this cheat sheet was a list of everyone in the family. Next to each of our names was a dot, or dots. Those dot(s) identified our gifts. I looked under the tree, and if there wasn't a gift tag, no worries because the code was there. Two green dots- Becky's gift. No shaking or partially unwrapping to jog the giver's memory. There was a code, an ingenious code.
This year I came up with my own code. It's called everyone gets their own wrapping paper. I love the durability of packing paper, so I used a big roll of it to make wrapping paper. I painted green stripes for T, green dots for W, red dots for CE, and red hearts for G. Nina gets wrapping paper I had from last year. Family gifts are a different wrapping paper from last year. No cards needed so far. I can tack them on Christmas Eve. Next year I might just use different ribbon and keep the paper plain.
This is my "code" and I'm sticking to it! I like it better than my Plan A which was: Take a large black Sharpie and write directly on the gift. Do you have a code or do your gift tags magically stay on gifts 'till Christmas?Thanks, mom & dad...you really DID know a thing or two and I really WAS paying attention!
Happy Gifting & MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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13 comments:
I didn't know anyone had cracked the code.
I don't really have a code, but every year Mari gets gifts from movie stars who have the hots for her. Somehow she figures out that they're from me.
Oh...I so know about the code thing! My mom used that method! The problem was she usually lost her cheat cheat! My trick ........we do not put ANY thing under the tree till Christmas Eve! The kids put their gifts for each other under but thats it! That way Christmas morning it is so exciting! No chance for cheating here! The only thing is that it is sure hard to find a place to keep all those gifts hidden!!
Super smart idea! I'll have to remember this as we have more kids. Right now, just about everything under the tree is for MoMo, so no problems there!
Hmm, no code for me. . .
And no chocolate advent calendar for your either!
All those years I worked for Barbara Lang, I always wrapped her gifts for the grandchildren. And she had a special notebook wherein all the grandchildren were listed, the gifts she had bought them (throughout the year, saving them for Christmas) and how much each one cost, and a snip of wrapping paper. She had a different paper for each grandchild. Pretty smart!
Monkey mom (several Julie's read this, so I must differentiate;))- The chocolate advent calendar is a whole 'nother post. We really need to rework that tradition, or call it what it is: 24 pieces of chocolate to scarf down in one day.
Hail, Barbara Lang...she is one amazing woman. I knew she was smart, but wow, a notebook to keep track. She's brilliant & way more organized than I am, although I might just resort to that strategy when the grandkids come and I'm looking at scores of gifts. Gift cards sound good at that point, for storage reasons alone!
I'm with Carrie....seriously, doesn't Wes just rip through those packages? We have trailing ribbon all over the house and bells used as if they were bouncy balls. Not even one gift would make it with our hurricane noddy. But that is pretty ingenious---and ditto Barbara Lang. I love that lady! Did they employ everyone? I used to work for Dan Lang.
genious!
What a great idea!
You're so smart--and the wrapping paper looks nice.
My Mom just wrote our names on the gifts...but we still often ended up with the wrong gift...I have a different way every year...I like the dots thing though...that is really cute!
I only use stick on gift tags for that very reason. And if not I write the person's name in a very subtle spot on the back of the package. This is after having gifts that my mom mailed to us ruined because of the tags falling off and not knowing who they were for! I'd rather have a slight blemish on the paper than let all of that money and effort go to waste!
Merry Christmas!
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