Am I the only one who gets overwhelmed at the thought of wrapping, packing, and shipping Christmas gifts? I don't have such a problem with wrapping the gifts--I can live with that. But when you also expect a S.H.E. like me to scrounge around for the right sized boxes in which to pack them..and also find enough packing peanuts or other materials to keep them safe until they arrive... well, Sister..then you are surely asking for trouble .LOL! It's just too much for a 'visually' cued person like me to handle!!
I was so discouraged, the other day, at the sight of all those items to be wrapped..and the boxes all jumbled in a corner of the living room..and the garbage bags full of various packing materials that I've saved all year surrounding me...that I almost gave up altogether. First, I thought about cleaning the oven..or maybe writing a poem...or planting bulbs for next spring. I also considered going on vacation..but I don't think Christmas is the best time of year for that..regardless of what 'Mr. and Mrs. Crank' might think. It just looked like way too big of a job!
I'm sure it would have helped if I had worked at this a little bit at a time, but now that the kids are older, there seem to be so many evening activities, that I have to carve out a whole day..or two or three..to do this. I know, I should have gotten those packages in the mail five days ago, but two tires were on the brink of blowing out, and my 20yr. old daughter was about to drive to Dallas and back--by herself, and we had company for dinner...and went to visit family...and the weather was soooo.... lovely...
Well, when it could be avoided no longer, I sat down to wrap gifts with Rebekah, my daughter, and we plugged away at it very valiantly (I thought) and then cratered and went to bed. The next morning, the sight in the living room was just too much for me. I determined to come up with a better plan. I just can't stand working in chaos, so I organized all the piles, turned on the Christmas music, made a cup of cocoa and put it in my new penguin cup, (thank you Jill!), and went to work in a much better frame of mind than the day before.
Here are the steps I took to make gift wrapping simple....
1. Gather tape, scissors, ribbon, bows, packing tape, gift tags, mailing labels, addresses (a print out or book), sharpie, and ink pen. Put it all in a pretty basket. :o) This way, we all know where these items go when we are not using them and I won't keep losing all of these items every time I wrap a gift. (I say 'we' because I assume you gathered recruits for this project--no child is too small! My kids have been 'wrapping' gifts for years!! :o)
2. Gather all the gift bags and tissue paper that could be used for Christmas gifts and put them in the biggest bag. Gift bags make gift wrapping immensely more simple. Grab your gift wrap paper and brown shipping paper while you are at it.
3. Put all the bows in another gift bag so they don't end up all over the floor when you are trying to pick the 'perfect' color.
4. Gather all of the gifts you have purchased and put them in a laundry basket or two somewhere nearby. (Be sure to mark out all of the prices or remove the price tags, and of course, the receipts need to go in an envelope labeled 'Christmas' for possible future returns.)
6. Gather all of the packing peanuts and other materials that I hope you have saved for the last few months plus any grocery bag stash you might have. Grocery bags make great packing material!
7. Lay out all the boxes in a row by family so you can tell who gets what. Write the family name on the lid so you can tell who is who. Start with the packages that have to be shipped of course since it will take some time for them to get them.
Go ahead and put the items in the boxes so you can tell that they will fit when wrapped. This will keep your living room much neater. Make sure that you leave plenty of room for packing material.
8. Now it's time to wrap those gifts--one destination at a time. Just do it! If you can put it in a gift bag..well then, by all means, do so! If not, well.. you know the drill. Hopefully, you have organized your supplies enough to stay fairly sane through the process. If you wrap all of one household's gifts at a time, then you will know you haven't left anyone out and even if you only do three or four boxes, you will be able to ship some of them tomorrow morning!
Once you have the gifts that need to be shipped out the door, you can wrap the rest in a more leisurely manner..which is a lot of fun of course. :o)
Now turn up the Bing Crosby music..and let's start wrapping!
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