Traditions

Years ago a couple of our kids hid in one of their rooms on a Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours busily working on some project. This was usually cause for some kind of disastrous science experiment but when they emerged they had a Christmas present for Jenny and huge smiles on their faces. Needless to say they were super excited for Jenny to open up their present because they had made it themselves without any help.

On Christmas morning Jenny opened their present and it turned out to be a package full of cotton balls and Q-tips. For some reason Jenny knew exactly what to do with these things, she threw them in the air and shouted Merry Christmas. Who would have thought it? She did exactly what they expected her to do. Their present was a hit. From then on it’s been a tradition in our family that everyone has to make at least one present for each other no matter how cheesy it is. The kids usually hate this but it ends up being the one present they’re the most excited to give out. Don’t get me wrong, we give other gifts to each other but every year we wrack our brains and come up with something that we can make for each other.

One year I made the kids the ultimate gift that I thought I’d never be able to top. I went down to the dollar store and bought them each a toilet brush. When I got home, I got out some pens and ribbons and customized each of the brushes with their names and added cool bows to them. Who wouldn’t like a customized toilet brush with your name on it to use when it’s your turn to wash bathrooms on Saturday. Oh, good times! There’s still a couple of those gems around the house somewhere. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Well this year somehow I think I’ve topped the toilet brush gift. A couple of weeks ago a lady in our group showed some of her friends how to make a duct tape tote bag. Anything made from duct tape is cool right? When I heard about this tote bag, the light bulb went off and I knew what I could make for my presents this year. Duct tape gifts! They are very useful and as an added benefit if you are stranded somewhere and in need of a repair you could actually pull apart your duct tape item and make the repair right on the spot.

Since I wasn’t quite sure how to make the bags I begged my co-worker to teach me how to make them. So, she took pity on me and over a couple of lunch breaks we sneaked into a conference room and worked these some duct tape masterpieces. Check out this bag. The technical name for this bag is actually a tote because I would never own up to actually making a purse even if it’s made out of duct tape. This one is for my younger daughter and I also made an orange and black one for my older daughter.

Since I’m going with the duct tape theme this year I also came up with the idea of making duct tape wallets for my sons. It was really pretty simple. All I did was use my own wallet as a guide and a couple of hours later it was done. Check it out, they even have pockets for cards. Dang, these are so cool I might want one of these wallets too. I can hardly wait to give these duct tape masterpieces to my kids. For some reason I’m thinking the kids will like these a lot more than the custom toilet brushes.