All Wrapped Up

I love gift giving. Not that I'm really great at it, but it's certainly something I aspire to. I like to know what people want for Christmas, but more than that, I want to give them a gift for Christmas that they didn't know they wanted or could not have expected and will ultimately LOVE. I realize this is a tall order, if not nigh unto impossible.

It must come from my love of the surprise. I love surprises so much I want to know as little as possible about a movie's plot before seeing it, I have NEVER been so much as TEMPTED to peek at presents for Christmas or birthdays early, and to be honest, I think the surprise of it is one of the reasons I like baking. The transformation is a mystery--you put it in the oven and out comes a cake! A bread loaf! A poofy pancake! Surprise!!

The bad part is, ridiculously, I want the element of surprise to be present in the receiving end of my gift giving as well. I want the ones giving gifts to me to literally read my mind for what I want. Because I don't want to tell them. Because I LOVE to be surprised! I am crazy.

Well, given that I am so big on surprising, OF COURSE, I am not going to say a peep about what might be in the following. Though I will say, I have come to love the wrapping of gifts nearly as much as the giving of them. And I owe this in large part, certainly the use of REAL ribbon to don the gifts, to my in-laws, who are all world-class wrappers.








And here they are all together, all the presents, done and wrapped with more than 10 days left to go! I am quite proud.


And just for fun . . .

I've also come to realize that I love hosting. Perhaps another trait rubbed off from my in-laws. I bought my mother this serving set for her birthday last month and I liked it so much, I went and got one for myself. And I used it, Saturday night, at our Christmas movie night. We squeezed 10 people into our front room to watch Home Alone on our little box tv, and I for one, had a ball! If so many of our friends didn't have to pay for sitters and downgrade in party space, I would do this ALL the time!

I was so good to take a picture of the spread and none of the guests. Way to go on priorities, Emily.

AND today I am 12 weeks pregnant! This was taken a few days ago via our phones as our camera has gone missing. And since then we've happily added a few more to our Christmas card wall behind me there.

There ya have it folks! A little Moffat surprise on its way!