Want/Need/Wear/Read

I was feeling a little anxiety this weekend over the fact that Christmas is so close and I didn't have ANY presents wrapped. Except for these, which I HAD to wrap so I could mail them to my sister in North Carolina last week. What do you think of my unique wrapping paper?

This year, I used old maps to wrap gifts. It's unique, environmentally friendly, and colorful too. I'm pretty sure my nieces will say I've lost my mind. But, then again, they already thought I was weird.

So last night, Dan and I had a mission. He worked on a spreadsheet while I went to the basement to start wrapping gifts. He joined me when he was done, and we watched the Survivor finale and assembled and wrapped some more gifts. I can't tell you how many times I congratulated myself for being so smart a few years ago and sewing drawstring bags to use for wrapping. They are reusable and so darn easy. I was thrilled with how much time I saved.

I was also pretty excited because this year, we are limiting the gifts to four categories: Want, Need, Wear, Read. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Katie told us she should get three gifts (like baby Jesus was given) and then one from Santa. I had already bought a few more than that so I wasn't sure how to backtrack and make that work. I recently read some comments here and here that made me rethink the idea. Dan and I settled on Want, Need, Wear and Read. I made special tags for the kids' gifts and wrapped them in the bags. I think they turned out pretty well!

And, yes, I do understand that drawstring gifts bags will work for only a certain period of time. Once Katie learns to tie her shoes, I'll have to come up with some other way to wrap. But for now, it's the way to go!