how to enjoy wrapping presents

I enjoy wrapping presents, but I sometimes get tired of doing it the traditional way.  (Why do I have to conform to what is “normal”?  Plus randomness is fun, as evidenced on this blog.)  Also, one of my pet peeves is when people are able to easily guess what is wrapped.  When I wrap presents, particularly for my brothers, they aren’t going to guess what’s it in.  I’ve employed various techniques to disguise it, such as including rocks, pennies, bricks, pine cones, etc., inside the box.  And of course, the box should be one other than what the actual gift came in.  You want to vary the size, weight, and sound it makes.   There’s no anticipation if they already know what it is before opening it.

One year I put pennies inside a hard plastic case inside the main box, so when the present was shaken, it would make a crashing sound that happened after the normal sound, so it sounded like it was broken.     I’ve also made presents exceedingly difficult to open before, using numerous packagings and duct tape.   Some of my presents cannot be opened in under a few minutes.   That helps people savor the moment… 

But beyond disguising it, I like to make it look unique.  One thing I’ve started doing is saving the scraps of wrapping paper from other gifts to use on one package.  Last year I did this on two different presents, which are displayed below.  (Click the images for a larger picture.)

present #1

Present #2, top

Present #2, side

Present #2, bottom

Hopefully this inspires you to be more creative with your wrapping this year.  But a quick word of warning: not everyone appreciates this “art” the same way.  It seems to work better on brothers and male friends, rather than parents, grandparents, and in-laws.

caption contest, guests at Christmas party

Let’s start the week with a caption contest!  (I know, we do that every week, but it’s such a great tradition!)  This week’s picture has some Christmas decorations in it.  The setting can be whatever you want, but for an idea, you could imagine it to be a Christmas party of family get-together.

Ready for the directions?  Write a comment explaining what’s going on here.  That’s it.  Your goal is to be funny.  Very simple.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

I finally put up Christmas lights

My wife decided she wanted Christmas lights on the outside of the house this year.  She’s been bugging me for weeks to put some up, so I finally did.  But now that I did, she won’t talk to me.  Women are just so hard to please!

caption contest, Santa and Stormtroopers

It’s a Monday, and it’s December now, so how about a Christmas-themed caption contest?  It sounds like a plan to me.   It works like always (if you aren’t familiar with them, I’ll explain).   I’ll post a picture, and you write a caption to go with it.   The caption can be dialogue from the people in the picture or analysis or commentary or just something funny to go with it.   Since a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a lot of potential. 

For this week’s picture, here’s Santa Claus being escorted down an escalator by Imperial Stormtroopers.  I have no idea what’s going on there, so perhaps we can figure something out.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

the Swedish Christmas goat

I forgot about writing on the giant straw Christmas goat in Sweden this past Christmas.  They build one every year, a big 43 foot tall one which weighs 3 tons.  Almost every year it is burned down by vandals.  Last year they put some special fireproof materials on it, and one of the officials said, “not even napalm can set fire to the goat now”.  To me, that sounds like a challenge…

So I looked online to find out what happened this past year, and I found out there are two giant straw goats built there each year.  One of them was burned down this past year (2007).  I also found out there are people who make bets on when the goat will be burned down.  And in the mid-1980s, there was a guy named Gunnar Hedman who built a 41 foot goat with the help of other village peoples, then after Christmas they burn it down.

I want to build a giant straw Christmas goat, too.  It would be a huge tourism attraction.  This was discussed some last year, when we decided to build it in Mango-Man’s yard, since he has a few acres and lives outside the city limits (so we wouldn’t be subject to city ordinances and such, although they may not have laws against giant straw goats).  We’d sell nachos and hot chocolate, and we’d build bonfires where you can roast marshmallows.  And then at some point we’d burn the goat down, since that’s part of the tradition. It would be a great time.  We could even sell miniature straw goats that people can put under their Christmas tree and then burn whenever they want to.

Sadly, Mango-Man has thus far failed to see the ingeniousness of this plan, and he’s resisting.  But we will keep after him, until he relents or a more suitable place is found.  Someday this will happen, though, and it will be awesome.  (And you heard it here first!)  It can become one of our holiday traditions.

FYI, the Guinness world record for a giant straw Christmas goat is 49 feet high, held by the same people that build one every year.  I’m thinking we can break that, and then we’d be famous.