12 Days to Organize the Holidays- pt 5

      My parents would tell you that my twin brother and I were peekers. Every year we would secretly search our house for brightly colored packages, reading the tags to see who would anticipate the biggest haul that year. Rarely did we ever find any! I'm sure my parents knew that we looked, but at the time my brother and I felt like ninjas in the night on a mission for lost treasure!
   
       To my parents' credit, they were ninja masters, able to hide any and all gifts before Christmas. Each year on Christmas Eve my mother would bring out all of the gifts for that year, place them under the tree as her children nearly fainted in anticipation. Magically there would always be more the following morning, and my mother always bragged that arrangement was everything.  One year my parents out did themselves. We had opened all of the gifts on Christmas morning, and our bratty selves were moping and trying to hide our disappointment that we didn't receive the bikes that we had asked for since our birthdays. In true Bob Barker fashion, my dad began to open the blinds to our screened porched and miracle of miracles stood two gleaming bikes! My parents were magicians on Christmas.

      I, however, did not inherit the magic. My husband's gift wrapping skills would put the Macy's department store wrappers to shame. (Which is why he wraps all of our gifts!) I'm more of the gift bag vein. I try and get pretty paper that is coordinating, bows and labels that shine and all of the extra trimming. We only end up using one paper, unless I'm wrapping too and didn't we just talk about that?! But since we have become parents, we have had to up our creativeness when it comes to gifts.

     Our home doesn't have very good hiding spots. With so many littles, space is precious. I'm not sure where my parents hid all the gifts, but kudos to them for pulling it off! Around the middle of November I stop allowing kids to use my bathroom so that they will keep their noses out of my closet. Since the twins are a bit older, they have realized that snooping only ruins their Christmas, and the minis aren't out from under foot to really realize what treasures are hiding, so it hasn't been an issue last year or this year, but I fully anticipate the minis to begin their ninja hijinks soon enough! Here is what we have learned to help combat snooping!.......

• Use different paper for each person
• Label with letters or numbers (ie. #1 for your first born or #8 for your 8 year old)
• Use nicknames
• Wrap gifts in boxes much bigger than needed
• Add weight. (Drop a few towels or old books in to throw them off!)
• Use different shaped tags. (Emily is a circle, Ryan is the Christmas tree)
• Different colored ribbon for each person
• Wrap all of their gifts in one big box. Then they will only think they are receiving 1 gift!

     These are just a few tricks we have used over the years to keep wandering eyes from spoiling their own holiday. What are some tricks you have used in your home?

 We wish you and yours a very merry holiday season!