Our Annual Christmas Wrapping Contest

We had a marvelous Christmas, all the wrappers out did themselves and believe it or not are already making plans for next year.  With all the comings and goings it was a bit difficult getting everyone together for the opening of the gifts and we ended up with a two part family gathering. The first half was on Dec 26th and the finale was New Years Eve. Worked great....

 Here are the entries from the first half

This is a gift for Brandon W (we have two Brandon's... grandson Brandon L and grandson-in-law Brandon W) from Cory

Brandon loves his truck so Cory fashioned a truck from cardboard, filled the back with gifts....

and also put one under the hood. We are off to a good start don't ya think?

Brandon wrapped his gift for Benjamin.  

Benjamin loves wine and cigars so Brandon filled a coffin with gifts "that will kill you".  If you have followed our previous gift exchanges you know some of our family members are a bit "strange".... and Brandon is married to Sarah who did the bloody dog thing last year.  

Benjamin wrapped a gift for Brad. 

 Brad has always been a fan of Charlie Brown so he was thrilled with his Charlie Brown Christmas theme. How cute is this?

I can't show you Brads right now, I have to take better photos... it was a gift for me... so moving right along... I wrapped a gift for Sarah

A Giant Cupcake filled with.... what else..... polymer clay supplies, books, clay and a pasta machine. 

Sarah, our winner last year, wrapped a gift for her sister Amanda. She was pressed for time due to college finals and her hubby on leave from the Navy, plus she is the mommy of a 2 year old... so she wasn't able to devote a lot of time to wrapping... 

Amanda is an artist so Sarah wrapped her gift in pictures of fine art. Sara is planning to reclaim the trophy net year. 

Amanda's gift was for another past winner, Roger. 

Roger has recently become an enthusiastic member of a Dungeons and Dragons group... I'm pretty sure he joined a cult... so Amanda put her artistic talents to work and wrapped his gift as a 20 sided dice.  

Granddad Lynn had to work on New Years eve so Eugene gave him his gift... now according to Eugene he thought he had another week to plan his wrapping...so he wasn't prepared and his gift was wrapped in plain old Christmas paper.... didn't even rate a photo...no bow, nothing....  You can believe that story if you want to, me, I'm a little skeptical.  Every year we have at least one piker, I won't mention any names but they know of whom I speak.  Next year I will be keeping an eye on Eugene.  

Roger will be first up in the next installment.... which I will post tomorrow. Some really awesome entries yet to be  revealed so I hope you'll stop in..... and you don't want to miss the winner. 

Just wanted to add a couple photos of what made this a truly Joyous Christmas.  Having a baby in the family reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas. 

Uncle Brad bought Lily a set of pink mustaches which she loves.... take a look.

Lily wanted to see how she looked so  her grandma, my daughter , (yikes our daughter is a grandma!) held her up to a mirror.

She had no problem keeping it on and walked around like it was part of her daily attire.

This is my favorite and is now my screen saver.  She is such a funny bunny!! We all love her to pieces. 

Polymer Clay Canes from Premo

Yesterday I was rearranging my clay drawers and I discovered several packages of Premo that I forgot I had. I wanted to see if I could use the clay for canes.... it's pretty soft.. I used partial packs of Pearl, Red Pearl and Blue Pearl. I let them rest over night, I'll try slicing them later today.

Click on the photos for a closer look

I also made a Seafoam Green Wire Pendant adorned with glass Cathedral beads then added it to a necklace made of green glass pearl beads on wire links. I had planned to back the pendant with clay but decided I like it like this. I am happy to report that yesterday I looked out the studio window and spotted the little bunny. That was the first time I've seen him since "the incident". He looked great, grown quite a bit, just hopping around nibbling on grass. Fortunately Corny was in the house napping. I took a photo but it didn't turn out well, what with my dying camera... and my dirty window.. he looks like a blob instead of a bunny.

This is a photo of the flower bed under my back windows. The lilies are gorgeous this year, I wish they lasted longer but enjoy them immensely while they are in bloom. The clematis is getting top heavy but I'm not sure how to prune the vines so I just let them do there thing. This is the first year for the foxgloves, they are so regal looking, I hope they come up again next year.

Close up of Clematis Close up of Foxglove

Lily at Michael's

Well I didn't get a new camera for Christmas, apparently Santa thought I was a bad girl. Actually my computer died so I got a new Mac instead. I'll have to buy my own camera. In the mean time grandson Brandon is letting me use his camera.

The gift wrapping was a big success this year. So many really cool packages, wait til you see the winner it was amazing!! Heather took lots of photos with her fancy smancy camera which I will share with you once Heather and Brad download them to my new computer. Right now I am trying to adjust to the small cordless keyboard and the "magic" mouse. I'm not good with change so it is going to take me awhile to get use to this new fangled gizmo.

In the mean time here are photos of Great Granddaughter Lily shopping at Michael's.

Oh Grandma look at the pretty beads... I like the pink ones!!

I'm not sure what you do with these but it looks like fun.... lets get a couple.
Look at all the pretty flowers!! I like the lilies best, don't you?