“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
Wherever you are today — traveling between family dinners, vacationing for the holidays, or spending a quiet day at home — may it be filled with peace, joy, and much love. I’m thankful for so much today, including your friendship and all the times you’ve taken the time to read or share this blog.
It’s been a wonderful 2011, and I wish you a New Year filled with happiness, prosperity, and an even greater love and concern for this planet we all share.
Now for a peek inside our Green Christmas…
After all this talk about green gift giving and eco-friendly gift wrapping, I thought you might enjoy a look under my family’s tree. It would spoil some surprises to share the gifts, but you can see how they’re wrapped.
AND you’ll see how I embrace imperfection… In years’ past, I’ve done a bit more coordinating of colors. But this year, I finally learned furoshiki, so I wanted to try out some different fabrics. We also held a Make Your Own Wrapping Paper party with the neighborhood kids, so we stamped and colored old packing paper, and we made our own embellishments from ornaments, bells, and even made pom-poms with yarn.
I found some recycled wrapping paper I received in the mail from one of the environmental organizations we support. The boys loved that it had penguins on it, so we used it. Things like this popping up means we have an eclectic assortment of gift wrap this year.
Fabric Gift Bags
This is another one of Nancy Hoerdemann’s creations from The Beautiful Gift. This one is wrapping a gift card for someone, but it makes such a lovely ornament, I almost hate to part with it!
Furoshiki
I have actually had these fabric wraps from Chewing the Cud longer than I care to admit. Thanks to Jenn Playford’s book Wrapagami, I finally figured out how to use them to wrap boxes, books, and wine bottles.
This wrap was actually from a set of holiday cloth napkins I found at a craft store for $1.99 each.
Stamped Papers
Earlier this year we bought picture frames from Pottery Barn Kids. The paper inside the frames was a heavy, off-white card stock that made a nice canvas for stamping and wrapping small gifts. Our 6-year old did all the stamping on this one 
Recycled Packing Paper Gift Wrap
If you’ve ever had a professional move, you have enough paper on hand to wrap gifts for a small city… for 20 years. A Brooks Bros. store window in Chicago had this type of crinkled paper with velvet bows on display. I’ve found that if you save enough Christmas items in your gift wrapping station, you’ll never be at a loss for embellishments.
And speaking of gift / craft stations, I have to share this photo for my friend Lori from Groovy Green Livin. When mine is in use, it’s so NOT organized…
Thanks again for sharing your year with me. Merry Christmas!
