THE PLEASURE OF PLAIN BROWN PAPER

Yes, it's quicker to order gifts online and have someone else wrap and ship. But, ya know what? It is ever so satisfying to hand wrap gifts (I like to choose fun, non-traditional colors in wrapping and tissue paper over traditional red and green) and then cover the boxes in smooth brown craft paper. Icing on the cake is creating hand-made shipping labels. Now the boxes look like they came from a person rather than from a huge factory.

Bonus: during the time it took to do all the hand-wrapping and mail prep, I got to watch Martha Stewart and Jamie Oliver cook up some awesome holiday treats on the telly while the mister and I made irreverant jokes.