amethyst
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I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 15-07-2009
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With the holidays upon us, I thought it would be fun to share some of the funny, outrageous, cruel, obvious places where presents are hidden or wrapped.
It started in my family years ago when my parents put out a big box with no name on but lots of warnings such as "one wrong move and you lose". Turned out to be an Atari for my brother and I.
My hubby still laughs about getting a basketball one year where there was only a note under the tree in a small box that read "look under your bed".
This year, fate is helping me. My daughter is getting an electronic leash, well she thinks it's a cell phone to text her friends (until she runs out of minutes). Anyway, I told her I forgot to order it. Then our bank account got screwed up, and while it will correct itself, it leaves us with very little until it does. So now, I'm telling her that I can't order it, until the account gets cleared. Actually, the thing is sitting under the tree in a huge box that contains a package of socks and camisoles. It's stuffed into the socks. My son is more curious about the big box than my daughter who thinks her present will be coming late.
I'd love to hear more stories about fun wrapping, etc.
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21-12-2011 00:39
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Transmute Jun
Queen of the Bird Missiles
I am a Swan.
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When we were kids, my brother was convinced that the biggest boxes were the best presents. He went *nuts* over the big boxes. He was also notorious for sneaking in and 'examining' presents under the tree, because he simply couldn't wait.
Thanks to his impatience, my parents relented after a few years of nagging and began permitting us to open ONE gift on Christmas Eve, while leaving the rest for Christmas morning. And since my brother had been 'examining' all of the gifts and always went for the biggest box, he would always know what he wanted to open.
Well I resented this slightly, because I liked to wait until Christmas morning, but my parents made me open a gift on the 24th as well, to make it 'fair'. Yeah, not much of an issue, but as a kid I had somehow made this out to be a big injury. So one year I decided to 'get' my brother. A couple of days before CHristmas I had been making cookies, and my brother really liked them. So when he wasn't looking, I took 2 cookies and wrapped them in Saran wrap. Then I put them in a box. Then I put that box in a bigger box, and that box in a bigger box... well, you get the idea. I think I had 6 layers of heavily-taped boxes, and then I wrapped the whole thing (which was now giant) with wrapping paper and put it under the tree for him.
Needless to say, on Christmas Eve he was nearly wetting himself with excitement at this huge box that he was completely clueless about. I was grinning from ear to ear as he rushed to unwrap it on Christmas Eve as his ONE present, then became confused by box after box inside, and eventually was disappointed when he pulled out 2 cookies. He had 'wasted' his ONE Christmas Eve gift on my cookies!
Now this may sound cruel. but keep in mind that for nearly a decade I would get my brother a Christmas present and he would never get me anything, so I thought it was fair. 
Another example of how we used to torture each other: we would threaten to get each other horrible presents. One year these incredibly ugly monkey dolls came out called Monchhichi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od3cNTl40VI
So we were taunting each other 'If you're not nice to me, I'll get you a Monchhichi for Christmas!' We never did, because we couldn't bear to spend any money on these hideous things, but it was one of our jokes as we got older. We were still joking about it when we were in university.
Fast forward to this year, when I was ordering some Angry Birds dolls for my son, and the website had little tiny Monchhichis for sale! For $1, I was able to add a tiny 2" monkey doll to my order. I wrapped it up and sent it off to my brother. This year, on Christmas morning, he'll open up this little doll after it comes out of his stocking, and inside will be a note: 'After all of these years, I finally got you a Monchhichi!'. 
(If it makes you guys feel better, DH and I also already gave my brother a flashy new Android smartphone for Christmas, so he's not being completely shafted. )
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21-12-2011 01:39
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Transmute Jun
Queen of the Bird Missiles
I am a Swan.
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21-12-2011 03:42
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gatchamarie
Gatchamaniac
I am an Eagle.
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I'm chuckling at hearing so many cheeky gift related stories!
My parents never brought us up with the tradition of putting any type of parcel under the Christmas Tree (they gave us lovely, useful presents, but never used to wrap them up since, many a time, they'd have taken us with them when shopping for presents!) So, either because of this past lack of acitivity, or because of my own childish nature, I made it adamant to turn the tables over in my family and make things as special as they could be, especially for my kids!
My children, since they're both still young, until now still believe in Santa, and special presents at our home are strictly not found under our Christmas Tree before Christmas morning, after Santa would allegedly have gone down through our fireplace, eaten the cookies and drank the glass of milk my kids would have left him, and left the parcels underneath the tree! The presents would be their own wished-for items, after my DH and I would have taken our time over the previous months to extract as much possible of information from the kids themselves! When making sure that the kids would be fast asleep at Christmas Eve, I silently pop more small gifts and goodies into the individual stockings which usually hang above their heads, attached to their respective wardrobe knobs, always telling the kids that the magic won't happen if they'd be trying to keep awake to see Santa! The parcels already found under the tree before Christmas would be those already received from family members and friends, and which would have already been opened in front of the same givers as per required courtesy!
We do tend to disguise gifts for our children, but mostly not these Christmas gifts since they'd be already thrilled to find them under the tree because Santa would have left them, but those given from us as parents throughout the year! It's between me and my DH that we like to play tricks with presents, but the most important present that I remember being tricked into is the first ring my DH, at that time boyfriend, had given me! He told me that he was short of money, and that he couldn't give me a decent present that second Christmas together ... something which I believed since we were saving money for our future together ... and, whilst telling me to pop a simple popper he'd given me, out fell a golden ring from it ... all this happening on a plane which was taking us to Frankfurt!
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21-12-2011 09:37
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gatchamarie
Gatchamaniac
I am an Eagle.
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| quote: | Originally posted by amethyst
Marie, that is an awesome story. One of my best friends, who parents converted to Jehovah's Witness when she was little. I had a hard time understanding them not celebrating anything. My parents were one step away from being agnostic, and we still celebrated, so I thought everyone did. It took me a long time to learn that everyone has different traditions. I think it is great to go the extra mile for your kids to make the day special. |
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My parents were far from atheists since they always were the perfect Catholics ... not obsessive, but always following to the letter what they have been taught about the religion when they were kids! They only weren't much into materialism (the wrapping thing, the surprise aspect, etc!), putting the spiritual aspect before anything else! What my dear Mum did not skimp on were the luscious Christmas dinners, which she used to prepare in order to gather the family! Moreover, even if my brothers and I were given the chance of living our normal childhood, they also pretended us to behave as grownups most of the time, trying to prevent us from behaving silly ... something which I had a hard time to go against since I'm still as silly as a child to this very day, even if RL has hardened me a little, lately!
We still had some of our childhood house partly decorated, though, with the same artificial Christmas Tree every year, with my Dad's precious decorations (which we couldn't touch by any means!) hanging from its branches, and some small decorations scattered here and there! The three most valued items, which were given the most importance, were three antique Baby Jesus in their crib! Also valuable for my father, being items which were passed down to him from generations, were a large amount of figurines which formed an antique nativity set, and which we used to put in a crib ("crib" being a term also used here instead of a "nativity scene" or "presepe" in Italian!)! But, all in all, they were good parents ... for me, the best, even if we had our differences! Growing up I've learnt to decide which good examples I could keep (which were many!), and which ones, such like this subject, I could emiliorate for my own kids! I always say that equilibrium is good in everything, without going to extremes in either way!
For sure, at my present house we do have a cherished Baby Jesus (even more than one now, since my kids are frequently coming back home with small ones, which they receive from school and from their religious centres!), and we do have a crib, which is close to our hearts, but we also tend to decorate every corner and every inch of it with decorations which I only dreamt about! LOL ... my DH would always press down hard the gas pedal whenever we'd be passing in front of any Christmas store since I'd be always tempted to buy more and more decorations!
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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by gatchamarie on 22-12-2011 at 10:11.
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22-12-2011 09:51
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