1st Half 2012 Christmas Gift Wrapping Contest

Sorry for the delay, I'm a little late this year. I have a head cold,  my nose is drippy, my eyes are itchy,   and all I want to do is sleep.  Plus our cable service was spotty for the last couple weeks and finally went out completely for 3 days.... let me tell ya, being without the internet and television for 3 days was traumatic... what was the problem? you ask... Squirrels.  Yip thats right, squirrels.  Every couple years they chew though the cable outside.  This is like the 3rd or 4th time the squirrels have snacked on our cable line. You'd think by now the folks at Charter would take my word for it when I say it's squirrels but no, they do not.  We have televisions on all three floors of the house, practically one in every room ... not really but it feels like it when the "technician" on the phone has us running up and down the stairs, my hubby with the phone in one hand and a flashlight in the other, me trailing behind swearing under my breath and grumbling about  "damn squirrels"... checking numbers on the cable boxes, plugging an unplugging, sorting out miles of cable and wires... we were both getting a wee bit cranky, not to mention worn to a frazzle before they finally admit the cable is definitely out and agree to send a "technician" to the house. The first available appointment....not for 2 days, Now that I think of it, it's probably a good thing I had this cold.... the sleeping and cd's of two seasons of "Justified"  kept me sane.  I also had NPR on the radio and games on my iPad....  I tried claying a couple times but I'm not very creative when I'm sneezing and snorting.

Okay enough complaining.... Here goes, I'm ready to show you the gift wrapping. We had our family gathering on the 28th. As some of you know several years ago our family decided to draw names for Christmas and to make it more fun we came up with the "gift wrapping" contest.  Much to my surprise the family, including most of the guys really got into it....the gift wrapping has become much more important than the actual gifts.. we have a couple whiners.... well really just one this year...the two usual grumps did a terrific job.... the lone complainer had plans to do something so disgustingly gross we would ban him from the contest for life.... fortunately the womenfolk got wind of his plan and cut him off at the pass.

First up was the gift Brad wrapped for his dad.  Lynn is a big fan of science fiction or anything to do with space. Part of the gift is the head phones the robot is wearing, there is toy ray gun on his side, the rest of the gifts, all space related are inside his tummy.  There is a light on top of his head and another inside to make his eyes glow.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Lynn's gift was for Patty.  Last year Heather and I pretty much wrapped the gift Lynn gave Eugene...this year I told him he HAD to wrap the present by himself.  He put if off to the very last minute.... and I do mean the last minute. We were suppose to be at Patty's by 6:00PM... at 4 he ran over to Walmart  and this is his "New Years" themed present.  Not bad considering he was threatening to wrap it in a torn Dr Pepper box.

Okay I must admit I was a litte skeptical of  Lynn's gift wrapping abilities so I wrapped a back up gift..... just in case.   Good to know I won't have to worry about it next year....

I did  a "Little Drummer Boy" theme  for the "just in case" gift.  I'm happy I saved all those old hat boxes.... they came in handy this year.

Now this next gift needs some explaining.  Patty's gift is for Brad.  When Brad was 9 Lynn took him and the girls to see the movie "Alien".  Scared the beejesus out of all of them but it terrified Brad and the girls used it to torment him for years to come.   All they had to do to send him screaming from the room was utter the words "In space... no one can hear you scream"  and do the "face hugger" thing with fingers spread over their faces.  There were times when having two older sisters was a bit of a trial for Brad.

 Patty wrapped his gift as the "egg"  in Alien.  She used pipe cleaners to fashioned a "face hugger"  then put it on a spring so it would jump out when he opened the top of the egg or pod.

Next up is this fantastic paper mache tree made for me by my beautiful granddaughter Sarah.  The lovely wall art owl at the bottom is part of my gift and the rest are inside the tree trunk. Click on the photo to take a closer look.... I love it.

My gift for granddaughter Amanda was wrapped as a Fireplace decorated for Christmas.  The little stockings have the names of their two dogs as well as ones for Amanda and Cory.  As you can see it has a blazing fire, nothing like a toasty fire in the fireplace.  I ordered LED lights from Think Geek to make the embers glow but the lights didn't arrive in time.  Amanda and Cory were married in April.... Amanda refused to change her last name.... said "Smith" is to boring. Being from the old school of traditions  I  put a little "Smith" wreath above the mantle.

Zachery loves lizards and skateboarding.  His gift from Amanda is a lamp made from a skateboard all wrapped up  in a lizard designed box.  The lizard has a really neat tail but none of us managed to get a good photo of his rear so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I love the scales, don't you?

Zachary wrapped his gift for his music loving father  as a musical note.  I like it.  Take a look.

That is it for today.... more to come.... I will show the rest as well as the big winner tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.