christmas fun

at the barnes household we have quite a few christmas traditions. the big train open house, christmas eve pajamas, lisa's bundt cake, my favorite birthday dessert, santa pictures, and so on.

i realized this year that we have another tradition... one that isn't as obvious or necessarily festive. in my family, we love giving presents. we love searching for just the right thing, keeping it a total secret from the person, and trying to mislead him or her with obscure hints. i'm sure this is common in other households, but i think our favorite part of the whole present-giving thing is what we do best: wrapping.

not just wrapping. if any of you know me well, i am the worst wrapper of all time. what we love are the tricks, the scavenger hunts, the silly notes, and the prank gifts. i remember one year mitchell wrapped up a rock for tanner... then gave tanner his real present after he opened the rock. or how about this christmas when my dad wrapped a HUUUUUGE box with a little tiny note in the bottom telling tanner to go to the garage to find his longboard.

it's about the name-labeling.
(we call tanner RENNAT because it's his name backwards)
classy.

this next one is my personal favorite.

mitchell and tanner had a medium-sized box for me and scotty. i opened it to find another box. and inside that box was another box. and another box. and another and another and another. you get the point. then finally i came to a box the size of my fist to find this:
a bike bell? with a note that says "what could that go to? go to the garage to look at your NEW ride!!!!"

scotty and i didn't know what to think. a bike? a scooter? a motorized scooter?!

we run to the garage.

on the van's windshield, we find this:

JUST KIDDING! a gift card to olive garden.

it's things like these that make me love my crazy family more than i already to.

time to start planning the pranks for next year!