3 Last Minute Gifts

It's officially Christmas stress full freak out time!  Time to buy all of those final last minute items, or if you're like me, make all of those last minute items and finally make a decision about what to get those hard-to-buy-for folks in your life--I know everybody has at least one!

So here are a few of the things I'm putting together last minute:

{For the Grandparents}

The in-laws love to camp and just bought a new trailer so they're getting a "Tralier-Warming Basket Rubbermaid Container" this year.  It needed a few more little filler items, and I've learned when you're a grandparent, there's no such thing as too many pictures of the grand kids so, Instagram Coasters it is.

Brown Paper Packages-The Results

My wrapping is finally almost done.  Remember when I said that I love the versatility of brown paper? This is why.  And all of the trimmings were things I already had on hand and can be reused after the presents are unwrapped: yarn, fabric remnants (torn into strips), lace (which comes on a roll like tulle for about $5.00 at Hobby Lobby), and twine.  I did buy the snowflakes at Target in the ornament section and they come 4 for $1.00.  And after all of those tags I posted here, I went a different direction and got them from The Graphics Fairy (just search "Christmas").  

Traditions Old & New {and a recipe}

I'm one of those Christmas-is-my-favorite-time-of-year people.  {I think it may have something to do with the amount of glitter and gaudiness that is socially acceptable this time of year.  I'm a big sucker for pretty much anything shiny--think Dori from Finding Nemo.} My husband has just resigned himself to the fact that for the month of December {okay, and maybe October and November too}, I will be "Christmas-crazy" {which is more than slightly elevated from my usual brand of crazy.}  Everything will be "my favorite,"  I'll be decorating about 100 times more than normal, he's forced to listen to Christmas music non-stop, and  I'll get overly excited about pretty much everything Christmas related {or sparkly}.  It used to freak him out/irritate him slightly, now he's just learned to deal and bide his time until the crazy train leaves around the first week of January.

 I think one of my favorite things about Christmas time is all of the traditions that bring back that flood of childhood memories.  At the risk of being a little sappy and personal: my mom has been gone for nearly seven years now {hard for me to believe} and Christmas was absolutely her favorite time of year, which subsequently made it my favorite time of year--and the fact that Christmas is just plain awesome!  For me, carrying on the traditions that my parents started is a way to feel close to my mom again and keep her memory going in a very happy way {who wants to be sad at Christmas?}.  And I hope it's a way to impart the magic of Christmas to my child {maybe children in the future}and make her memories of Christmas as magical and happy as mine are.  This year has been especially fun thus far, because my 2 year old is starting to understand and get into it.  So, what are some of my favorite traditions at Christmas time?

The Old:

Christmas Dishes

My husband does not understand this one, but again, he just goes with the craziness--he's so great.  When I was little, my mom had Christmas dishes that we got out on December 1st--absolutely NO SOONER than December 1st--and we used them for all meals for the rest of December.  I remember begging her, when we put our tree up on the day after Thanksgiving, to pleeeease let us get them out just a little early--it never worked.  When I got married, my Grandma gave me a set of  Christmas dishes and we've pulled them out on December 1st every year since--and I think I still look forward to it as much as I did when I was a kid.

Aged Book Page Bunting

My Santa table in my entry way (my house basically gets decorated in themed groupings at Christmas, anyone else do this?) needed some sort of reindeer garland in the mix.  And it just so happened that a while back on Pinterest, I had come across this little lovely full of amazing things, among which, was a tutorial on how to age your own paper which I knew would give it that extra perfect little touch.

Source: shopruche.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

So off to work I went.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with Strings {and Free Printable Tags}

There are so many fabuless reasons {aside from the song} that I love simple, brown paper for gift wrapping:

*The beautiful simplicity--less is more in this case

*There are a million different ways you can dress it up

*It's CHEAP and lasts forever--check your dollar store.  I got a roll at mine and I actually like it better than the giant roll I got at Walmart because it's a little thinner and easier to use for wrapping {thick paper can be slightly difficult to fold and tape down}.  

 In case you haven't guessed, wrapping is what's on my agenda this weekend, although I'm not sure why, because due to a two year old tornado in my house, none of the gifts will be under the tree until Christmas Eve anyway.  But, I guess I can look at them sitting prettily in my closet until then.  So, here are some of the tags I've rounded up around the internet in the last couple of weeks, some of which I'll be using on my packages this weekend {all are linked to their original blogs through my Pinterest so just click on the link below the picture}:

Source: twigandthistle.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: thehandmadehome.net via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: creaturecomfortsblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: augustempress.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: eatdrinkchic.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

These come in several different colors if you want to steer away from the traditional red and green. The are most likely the ones that I'll be using.

Source: domestifluff.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

If you want even more, she has a BUNCH of awesome ones rounded up on her blog today too.

Happy wrapping!