In the interest of transparency I want to make sure everyone knows up front that this post isn’t about real estate. As much as I love my job I don’t want to think about it for a couple of days.
I was just wrapping some Christmas gifts for the family that we will exchange later. I don’t like wrapping gifts. There I said it. I usually end up making a mess. I crinkle the paper and the tape gets stuck to everything and I can’t cut in a straight line.
I am smiling though thinking about a quirky family tradition when in comes to gift wrap. I save the boxes, bags and even some of the wrap that comes on the gifts I receive each year and I take boxes that others discard. The next year I use boxes and wrappings again. I just put something in a box for my mother and I have to say the box must be ten years old.
When we unwrap our gifts we play a little game. We try to remember the history of the box bag or gift wrap. We try to remember who used the box last and what was in it and who it was given to. It is kind of like re-living each Christmas.
If you are expecting me to weave this into some kind of a real estate story you are reading the wrong post. For me Holidays are about family and I have one of those. Two wonderful children, a couple of parents a brother, neices, nephews and . . . . well other relatives too. I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I hope that no one is reading because they are spending time with family and friends.
Matt Stigliano
December 24, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Teresa – I’m just as bad at wrapping. I love the idea of what you do, both from a not wasting standpoint and the game of trying to think of who’s it was last time. I may just try that. My grandfather used to pass a can of Heinz beans around the family for some odd reason. I was very young and didn’t understand it fully, but the same can had been with him for years. I think it had to do with the Depression (and they were from Pittsburgh where Heinz got his start during the Depression). It always fascinated me as a kid though.
Brian Brady
December 24, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Merry Christmas, Teresa.
My new Christmas tradition is to look at your St Paul pics on Facebook.
Bridget Magnus
December 24, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Merry Christmas to you too.
Our “unwrapping game” is that all the gift tags have clues on them. Instead of “To Joe From Jane,” it’s “To Joe from China,” and perhaps it will have a tea set inside. Or this year, maybe something made of melamine! Part of the game is you have to guess what’s inside before unwrapping it.
Teresa Boardman
December 24, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Matt – my brother and I had a tradition involving a large candy cane he gave my daughter when she was 2. I wouldn’t let her have it but sent it to him as a gift the next year. It was passed back and forth. It was broken and just a bag of powder with tape all over it after 10 years. We kept adding to it and putting notes on it until one year it got lost in the mail between St. Paul and Chicago. Neither of us has seen it in years but we are never entirely sure that the other doesn’t have it and keep waiting to see it again. He thinks I have it and I just might. 🙂
Monika
December 24, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Merry Christmas Teresa I hope you and your family have a great holiday season.
Missy Caulk
December 24, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I hate wrapping gifts too. For a few years I went to the bags…that did not go over for the kids, they missed all the boxes.
So mom did what they wanted.
Merry Christmas!!
Bill Lublin
December 24, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Teresa you always make me smile – Merry Christmas to you and Boomerjack – and my sincerest wishes that the holidays are everything you want them to be –
Jonathan Dalton
December 25, 2008 at 1:06 am
I’ve been receiving Christmas gifts (long story) in the same box for more than three decades. The box is mostly tape at this late date.
My dad recently converted some Super 8s onto DVD … and the box made a cameo some 35 years ago.
I really like the box. Just don’t tell my mom since I’ve tried lighting it on fire for the last 10 years running.
Steve Simon
December 25, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Health and Happiness to you and yours:)