WFMW: Host a Wrapping Party!

If you’re a procrastinator like me, this idea is a gem! To give you an idea of how bad I can be, when I has Little Sis 5 years ago, the midwife suggested to me that perhaps the reason both of the girls were born a week and a half past their due dates is my tendency to put things off.

She was serious.

So this is how my Christmas Eves USED to go: dinner, church, put out cookies and milk, give the girls their annual new pair of Christmas pajamas, get the girls to bed, and wrap gifts. The wrapping would begin around 10:00 pm. By 10:45, Mr. Hoagie began to droop and headed to bed.

Which left me wrapping. And wrapping. For hours. Oh, sure, I’d put on Christmas music and get myself a nice beverage…but after three hours, I was decidedly LESS than merry.

After putting myself to bed at 2:00 am, and having the girls wake me at 6:00 am, I was MUCH less than merry. Especially since I was also in charge of making a four-course breakfast and taxiing Mom over, all before 7:00 am.

So at some point last year, I read an article about having a wrapping party.

BRILLIANT! It’s the perfect girls’ night in, complete with music, food, and drinks.

We kick Mr. Hoagie and the girls out (to dinner and a movie), and us girls wrap, and talk, and chat, and eat (preferably Christmas cookies). The best part is that it’s SCHEDULED (for a much more reasonable hour than 2:00 am), and we who don’t love to wrap get company. And sometimes, those who DO love to wrap (these are usually the people who already have all their gifts purchased and wrapped before the party, but come anyway) will pitch in and wrap YOUR gifts!

Even if I don’t get everything wrapped, it still gets me a big jumpstart, which is enough to get me to bed my midnight on CHristmas Eve.

And that, my friends, toally works for me.

For more great ideas, check out Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.