the trimmings

the mood has to be right for me to package up my gifts.
it has to be just the right day. not too early in december but early enough that the packages get a spot under the tree for counting and re-arranging.
there has to be music. christmas music. classics and newbies. a little mariah carey. not-gonna-lie.

and i must be feeling happy.

i’ve kept an on-going collection of pretty trimmings under the table in my craft room for the last few december weeks. there’s been no handmade gifts this year. i crossed that off my list of to-do’s long ago – knowing that come the month of december i’d still be in the transitioning stages of welcoming boy three (whom we now refer to as mister-wild-charlie-grey.) wrapping the gifts up would need to be my creative holiday outlet.

i felt like a happy little birdie yesterday when i pulled out my collection. it was THE absolute last day to get packages off to the post office and i spent ALL of tuesday morning humming away at my kitchen table. but first i had to recover the gifts from their secret hiding places around the house. i studied them all one last time and daydreamed away about the people they were being sent off to.

this years collected trimmings:
*black yarn
*a yard of black + red lumberjack flannel
*silver striped masking tape
*teeny-tiny crisp white tags
*a spool of glittery silver ribbon
*clay monogrammed tags (made by lukey + me especially for wrapping day)


a phone call was made to my natalie-sister in the middle of my taping, tying and happy jingle belling.

“i’ve got three boys. one that must be carried. one that moves too fast and one that dilly-dallies. and i’ve got packages. big ones. i must get to the post-office. today! the line is going to be sooooooooo long. what would you do?” i asked. practically singing with gift wrapping giddy-ness.

we came up with several solutions.

some of the best:
*dropping the baby off to be snuggled –leaving me with only two wilds to wrangle
*hiring a car-sitter to sit in the car with the children
*stroller and suckers and a BIG red santa bag
*calling the whole thing off

luckily for me, andrey saved the day. and i went to post-office alone.
i sang carols the whole way there and may or may not have still used a big red santa bag. 

love, lin