2nd Half 2011 Gift Wrapping Contest.

Okay where did I leave off?  Oh yes,  Lynn had just received his gift from Nick... so I'll start this half with the gift to Eugene from Lynn.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Now Lynn and Eugene are the two grumblers in this contest. In the past Heather and I save ourselves a headache and grudging wrap Lynn's gift. Patty always makes Eugene wrap his own which Eugene felt was unfair. If we wrapped Lynn's gift he felt Patty should wrap his.  He was doing a lot of moaning and groaning.... not to mention swearing.... so this year we told Lynn he would have to wrap his own, or at least help a little.

 The gift is two tickets to a Cardinals game in April. I ordered the tickets online and then printed them out so they are on a standard 8 by 10 sheet of paper.   First Lynn was going to make them into paper airplanes... we vetoed that.... then he bought a six pack of bottled beer and was going to stick the tickets down in the carton.... we vetoed that too... but the beer triggered the plan for the following gift wrap.

 Heather saw the beer bottle reindeer on Pinterest.  Okay, Lynn had help but he did participate. He's not allowed to touch most tools, and we try to keep him away from anything that heats up or has sharp edges.  He wasn't allowed to use the super glue but he did make the paper punch noses for the deer and, after several tries he made the gift tag himself. He then put the tickets in the little stocking and tied the tag on the stocking.

A closer look so you can see the red paper punch noses.  I'm not going to tell you what he said to Eugene when he gave him the gift.  It wasn't very Christmasy. 

Now Eugene's gift for Andrea... he did it ALL himself.  Apparently Patty trusts him to not burn the house down or glue his face to the table. Although I'm not sure it is in the spirit of the season to say all those bad words when your wrapping wise men. The gifts are figures for Andrea's nativity set including the 3 wise men.  They are wrapped as gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. The 3-D star above the manger is pretty impressive.

Andrea created a white Christmas for Heather with this little gingerbread village.  Lily liked this one... little houses made of candy... yum!!

You've already seen the gift Heather wrapped for Cory so we will move along to Amanda.... my other granddaughter with a strange sense of humor.  Her gift was for Benjamin.

This poor snowman fell on his head and the neighbor dog came over and peed on his cheek.  "Why?"  I asked "Why, would you have a dog pee on the snowman?"  She felt it made it more interesting.

Benjamin's gift is for Zachary.  He made Zachary a music award trophy featuring the "Doors" on a large guitar pick and a saying by Jim Morrison printed on the plaque.

Close up of the plaque on the front.

Brandon is a big "Star Wars" fan  so Zachary wrapped his gift as..... what else.... R2D2.  He used one of Patty's stainless steel bowls for the head so once poor R2D2 was opened his head went back to the kitchen.

Brandon used the 3-D printer at school to make this box for his Uncle Brad. He first designed the box on paper. It took a full day to print the bottom half and a 2nd day to print out the top.  The letters on top are a Caesar shift code that gives the combination to the lock. 

Can you figure out the code? With a few hints Brad finally got it open.

Brad was sick when he arrived and spend the first couple days in bed.  His first attempt at wrapping a gift for Amanda didn't work and he was going to wimp out but we insisted that was not an option... so with a little help from Heather, Eric and me he made this German advent calendar house.  Once again my colored duct tape came in handy..... not to mention my handy supply of odds and ends. You never know when you are going to need a hunk of styrofoam, a bottle cap lid or a empty cardboard tube. "Waste not, want not" I always say.

  He had several small gifts for Amanda, each is inside one of the little doors. Another gift that impressed Lily.

We are hoping this says Merry Christmas in German.

Now for the WINNER!!!!  Are you ready?

Patty's gift is for Roger.  Roger, Brandon and a group of friends play Dungeons and Dragons every friday night come rain or shine. I mean they are serious D&Der's!!

What better gift for Roger than a Red Dragon. The photos do not do him justice, he is really a very neat dragon!! He was going to be a fire breathing dragon but Patty couldn't figure out how to install the special light she purchased to make him breath fire.... more well laid plans gone a stray, maybe she can use it next year.

Another view with his eyes lit up

and Roger trying to figure out how to get the gifts out... one in the dragon and one in the base... with out hurting the dragon.

And now the torch... or I should say trophy... is passed from last years winner, Brad, to the new Champion Gift Wrapper. The coveted trophy will proudly sit on her mantle while the rest of us plot  how to take it from her next year.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed our family gift exchange.

I know it's a bit belated but I wish you all a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year!!