[chuckinca]

We have been reusing the same Christmas Gift boxes for about the last ten years. They are decorated boxes that fit inside each other so that there are about 10 boxes in one large box. I think we have 5 or so different sets of these that are decorated differently. Add tissue paper, the gift and close it up! Don't even have to put names on them, each person gets all the boxes that look alike. They can be stacked up about five feet high and sort of look like a Christmas tree.

My wife was just leaving to go to Michael's because they have some things on sale for $6 down from $24 today only. One of which is a rock tumbler; I said didn't we used to have a rock tumbler about 20 years ago and she came back with yes and you threw it out because it made too much noise in the garage. Michael's is a 35 mile drive thru the mountains (in the rain) - to get another rock tumbler (polisher); on sale. She intends to give these sale items to our three grandkids in Denver next June when we stop there on our drive back to CA from TV. As I recall the first rock tumbler was a gift our son got when he was about 7; he never got into it because watching a noisy tumbler spin for hours on end wasn't his idea of fun. Wonder if kids have changed that much in 20 years?

So I asked her to give me the Christmas boxes before she left so that I could "wrap" her gifts. We went up to the attic, being careful that the cat following us was the small female, Bebe, that wouldn't hide in the attic, and would follow directions to leave when told. She started going thru cardboard boxes marked Xmas to find the boxes of boxes. After a couple misses, she found one that had two types - so I had a choice. And she said that the tissue is in a long plastic box in the outside storage shed. Means I have to go out in the rain too.


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