Drinking the Whole Bottle: The Christmas Wrap LP

I love wrapping presents. I take pride in every present I wrap. Each has ribbon that has been twirled ever so perfectly around the scissors, each has a stamp of love on it. I even place them perfectly under the tree so that every magnificent present can be seen in all it's glory.

I wrap a mean present.

But some of the presents I remember most are the ones that were specially wrapped. The ones that weren't tied with a ribbon or stuffed in a bag. Sometimes the gift giving is just as special, just as memorable as the gift.

The Box We Forgot About
One year my mom came out with a small box that she had "forgotten" about until the rest of the presents were open. Ohhhh. This must be special. It was. The small box contained car keys. The car wasn't just for me, it was a family car that we would all use but imagine our surprise when we saw car keys! We ran outside, pressing the unlock button, waiting to see which car was our new car. And there it was. In plain sight. Parked in front of our house the whole time.

The Unexpected Switch
At the end of my senior year of college, my best friends and I were taking a 40 day tour of Europe. So for Christmas that year, my parents bought me this book:

I was soooooo excited about the book. It was like a symbol of what I could look forward to for the next 5 months in anticipation of my trip. I forgot about opening other presents. I started to thumb through all of the sights I would see and places I would visit. In the first few pages, I came acrosee a $20 bill. Yay! How cute, I thought. Thanks mom and dad. As I thumbed through a few more pages, I found another $20 bill and then another. Then, I turned the whole damn book upside down and shook the sh*t out of it. $20 bills fell from the pages of Europe and I was squealing like a pig in a Caja China. That my friends, is an unexpected switch.

Last year, I bought our "daughter" a Christmas book called Christmas in New York. In the pages, I wrote little notes that Husband would find. The end note was announcing our two night excursion to Manhattan... sans daughter. Then I wrapped the book and labeled it

To: Papi

Love: Rafa

The Hunt
Before Husband was Husband and Husband was Boyfriend I got him a kayaking eco tour trip as one of his Christmas presents. How do you wrap that? Funny you should ask...

I cut out little green and red cards and pasted slips of paper to each card. Each green card had a riddle to solve what the present was (he didn't yet know it was a kayaking tour). Each red card had a clue where he could find his next riddle. I gave him his first clue on Christmas morning and he found the first few clues/riddles after that until he arrived at one that announced that he'd have to wait until we reached our next destination. I took advntage of the fact that we were traveling to his brother's house in Texas the day after Christmas and waited until we were on the plane for his next clue. I got up to use the restroom and asked the flight attendant to deliver the next clue. Great touch. The last few clues were then placed once we arrived at his brother's place.

The Game
You'll notice that Husband is the recipient of a lot of my exciting gift giving. This year, he was receiving tickets to a Broadway Show. I printed out the tickets and save them in my pocket. Then when it was time I suggested we play a game of charades. Of course, I went first and acted out Phantom of the Opera. When he guessed it, I pulled out the tickets and said, "Yes. We're going!"