Wrap It Up

One of the things that I remember most from my first Christmas at the Tedesco house was Jason's mom's signature wrapping style.  Every single edge of wrapping paper was secured with scotch tape so that the same amount of effort that went in to wrapping the present had to go in to opening it too. With every present I successfully opened, I felt not only gratitude but also a sense of accomplishment.

Now that I am a mom, I've been thinking about developing my own signature wrapping style. I know some families use a different wrapping paper for each family member at Christmas, and I've seen other people get real fancy with lace. I think I've found something much simpler. For Father's Day, I used wrapping paper scattered with Happy Birthday in different fonts, but of course, I took the time to write "Father's" over every "Birth" in a black Sharpie. Then, when Maggie's birthday came around, I pulled the Sharpie out again to personalize her paper with an inside joke about our new favorite board book.  So when my sister and I were perusing the wrapping section at Target looking for Christmas tags last weekend, I was immediately drawn to this craft paper, and I think it's going to be my new signature style. Perfect for personalizing with Sharpies and stamps and paint and whatever else I have around at the time, every bow and ribbon will always match, and I'll never need tags. I bought every roll they had.

Also, although I love shopping for and wrapping presents, I look forward to the day when I'm a great grandma and can assign shopping and wrapping duties to the grandkids. Thanks for the PJs, Grandma Cil!