Gift Wrapping

Now don't you think that jingle bells just make a present all the more fun? 

A gift that jingles is a gift that smiles. 

I also love a gift adorned with fresh cedar clippings. 

The aroma of the wintry woods is always memorable.  

More cedar clippings and jingle bells...

And one of my favorite ways to honor antique lace is to use it to wrap a special gift. 

You can find such beautiful remnants of it here and there. If the lace is longer than needed, I usually wrap it around twice so that I don't have to cut it. 

~

My Grandmother believed that the package in which a gift is wrapped is just as important as the gift that's in it.

I will never forget the time when I was a little girl and wrapped my Grandmother's Christmas present with aluminum foil. I had grabbed a Christmas pin (a kitten in a red stocking) from my drawer (that's childhood Christmas shopping for you) and then proceeded to the kitchen to find my wrapping paper.

I tore a piece of foil off the roll, put the Christmas pin in the middle and then just scrunched it up real tight, squeezing it for good measure.

When I gave my gift to my Grandmother that night, she looked at me with such affection in her eyes and said, "Darling, did you wrap this?"

I nodded proudly as she proceeded to very delicately unwrap my wad of foil. She loved the pin but I think she loved the wrapping more.

She wore the pin each and every Christmas thereafter and every time I saw it, it reminded me of how happy it made her.

Aluminum foil and all.