The gifts need to go back to church tomorrow, so while I was wrapping them (the ones in the foreground) I went ahead and wrapped the presents for the grandkids. They are coming to church with us on Christmas Eve and then will return Christmas morning to tear into their packages.

I used to wait to wrap the kids’ presents until a few days before Christmas, but they have become skilled at finding my hiding places. Now they will just have to shake and poke the presents to guess what’s inside. It seems silly sometimes to wrap things since the paper usually gets discarded. However, I do enjoy seeing that display of red and white under the tree.

When I was three years old, I was given a present wrapped in special light blue paper with an angel with real feather wings on the front. This was an extravagant wrapping, unlike anything I had ever seen, and I insisted that we keep the paper. After that first year my mother always wrapped my best present in that paper. I knew to look for the angel package and open it last.

(The photo also gives you a little glimpse of our home. It is heated with steam radiators, seen on the right. It was built in 1929 and has wide baseboards and a chair rail all around the dining room. The paint and wallpaper were applied by me when we moved in years ago, and they have held up wonderfully. I have enjoyed pictures of other blogging friends’ homes, and wanted to share ours.)