Happy Friday all!! Thank you for your wonderful and occasionally hilarious 'performance' stories! Some of them had me in stitches!
Marianne, I was wiping tears from my eyes imagining a row of 'kid packages' trying to get up stairs!! And Wendy with her super-glittery hair!!
This is totally addictive! I want to collect stories forever!!
So, if you are just joining us, a quick catch up: I am doing a daily holiday give away. In exchange for your Christmas memories, you get entered to win a fabulous Curly Girl prize!! If you have not read everyone's stories, I highly encourage it…it is entirely heart-warming, de-grinching, and holiday-spirit lifting!
Today's topic is presents. There are two types of people in this world: those that peek, and those that don't. You either do or you don't. It's just that simple. In fact, think it would be an interesting study. A study on the effects of being a 'peeker'. I say that because I fall firmly in the “non-peeker” category. No way. No how. I love surprises. I love parties and cake and boxes with bows and silver white winters that melt into spring… and surprises! I never peeked. Not once. In fact, if I accidentally saw something I thought I was not supposed to see I made myself forget it. I was hard-core. Still am.
I married a peeker.
sigh.
So, today I want to hear your stories of peeking or not, and your favorite gifts that you remember receiving. The ones that Santa brought that you thought about so much you couldn't sleep! The ones that made you squeal with delight and fight with your siblings over. The ones you had your picture taken with. Those gifts.
The above photos are of my mom and her sisters posing with the respective year's best gifts. In one of them, my mom holds 'brown bear” which she got when she was 4, and I slept with in my bed when I was a little girl. He still plays Brahms's Lullaby.
Today's winner will recieve this:
A set of 6 packs of Curly Girl Holiday Napkins!! Perfect for all of your holiday entertaining!
Share away ladies! Have fun dusting off those memories.
The deal is the same:
Your comments are your entries. One comment per person please. Winner will be picked by Lucy. (At random) Comments will be accepted until 4pm EST Sunday 12/19.
My most memorable gift as a child was a “Samantha” American girl doll. I loved reading the books over and over again with my mother and I wanted a Samantha doll more than anything to dress up! When Santa brought her it was the best surprise Christmas morning. Even as a young adult, when traveling my mom and I still visit the American Girl stores and eat at the restaurant because it was a wonderful part of my childhood.
I’ve never intentionally peeked. I do sometimes stumble upon little gifts though, like the curly girl 2011 calendars that I found in my mom’s desk while looking for something totally innocent last time I was home. There were several there (and some other non-calendar items that I refused to let myself look at), so she must have purchased one for my 2 sisters and myself for Christmas. I emailed her the day they went up on the website and said “Christmas List” I think it was in July!
Two of my favorite gifts are Santa Mice that I got when I was younger. The older one, I must have gotten it when I was about 2 or 3, is falling apart. The legs are about to come off, there’s a hole in his chest where stuffing constantly sticks out from, but I love it! A friend of mine gave me a companion santa mouse in 1999, I know this because it has a belt buckle that says 1999. They are both between 2 and 3 feet tall, and both amazing! It’s not the Holiday season until they are sitting out by my fireplace! Every year I look for a new Santa Mouse, but I have yet to find one. I cant wait to add to my collection!
I will admit it – I’m a peeker. I’ve gotten better with age and time though. My sister is a peeker too so we would work together as a team to sneak a peek. My mom would generally put our gifts on layaway to reduce our prying. After she would pick the items up they would be unwrapped in her walk-in closet for the evening until she had time to start wrapping. While she was cooking dinner one of us would stand guard at the door while the other would rummage through and then we would switch. If she picked up while we were at school we would wait until my parents were asleep and carefully remove the tape and take a peek. I realized later how terrible this was but at the time we were so excited we couldn’t wait until Christmas morning. I don’t peek these days and actually look forward to the surprise.
Hi My name is Missy and I am a PEEKER! My brother and I used to take the little xacto knives (I know totally not child appropriate) and slit the tape on the presents open. Ope the boxes and then rewrap putting a new piece of tape over the old tape. Not too long ago I asked my mom if she ever knew… NOPE. Wow, we were pretty good. Favorite presents were a big stuffed dog names “Doogan”, my son sleeps with him now. It is about 30 years old, still looks pretty good. Another would have to be my Easy bake oven. I couldn’t wait for my daughter to turn old enough (last year) to buy her one for Christmas. Same yucky cake and cookies, but so much fun! Happy Holidays!
Not a peeker….best gift…as a child it was a crabtree & evelyn johoba scented gift set from my dad. To this day, whenever I smell it I think of that Christmas and that huge basket of treats.
I was a peeker as a child but as an adult I like the surprise more. 🙂 I did the open and rewrap as a kid sometimes. Or just go and find where Mom stashed the gifts to peek.
Favorite gifts as a child were a doll that I named Stephanie. And my Easy Bake Oven.
I was a peeker. I love love surprises, more than anything, I love a surprise, but I couldn’t help but sneak a peak. I don’t anymore… maybe since I was 18. I was raised by a single mom who would make hundreds of tamales to sell at Christmas time to collect some extra Christmas Shopping Money – she worked so hard! She’d have just enough – just before Christmas – so Christmas Eve she would be wrapping away – with the door shut, I didn’t mean to spoil the surprise, but if I’d see others gifts I would tell them what they were getting!!! Needless to say – I wasn’t allowed in the wrapping room anymore! I love to surprise people, too – the suspense kills me sometimes- so I am better off buying things at the last minuet just so I can keep it until Christmas day!! Oh, how I love the holidays!
My sophomore year in college all my little 19-year-old heart wanted for Christmas was a guitar. I had started learning to play that summer on my dad’s Gibson, and then one of my roommates had a Yamaha that I adopted. Over the course of the semester, I dropped hints to my parents about how much I was playing, hoping they’d catch on. When I arrived at the airport for Christmas break, I vividly remember waiting at the baggage claim with my dad, and I started in on how my roommate had this guitar and how she never played it so I used it all the time (there were still a few more shopping days left, you know!).
Dad nonchalantly asked, “Why don’t you ask her if you can buy it from her?” And my heart sank.
Christmas morning came and the presents were all opened; the carpet had disappeared under wads of wrapping paper, but the only guitar in sight was a 6” plastic one that my sister had slipped into my stocking. Then, when almost all hope was lost, just as nonchalantly, my mom said something about another present for me in their bedroom. Like a little kid, I scampered off to discover – if I remember correctly, I screamed with delight at this point – a guitar waiting for me under their bed.
Dad told me later that he’d made that remark intentionally to throw me off, and that they’d actually purchased this guitar several months before.
no peeking I love surprises, still to this day I hate knowing.
I was a peeker too. Not only did I peek, I actually took my skateboard out for a test run and then hid it back in the closet before my mom got home. Never could figure out how she knew!
Never was (and still am not) a peeker, except for once, Christmas 1973. It was the first year that the presents arrived wrapped before Christmas Day (my twin sister and I thought that our parents helped Santa store gifts under the tree to save time on the Eve).
We could not take the suspense of waiting. One night, when everyone was asleep, we snuck downstairs to unwrap ONE gift each for a sneak peek. I felt so guilty, so naughty, and so “bagged” by Santa. But I still unwrapped my gift. We each chose a small box and carefully undid the tape and the paper to re-wrap later. Mine was a small ring with a lovely amethyst. Very grown up gift for an 9 year old. I loved it so much and have it to this day.
I felt incredibly badly about the whole peeking situation, so much so, that I never did it again. Ever. And, I had such guilt over the whole re-wrap thing that I started taking wrapping my gifts to a whole new level of “don’t open til xmas”.
I love surprises. Did not find out what I was having when I had my own babies (twin boys, as it turned out, who, are peekers if I’m not careful!).
My very fave gift of all time (which I also still have) was my Twiggy doll. The 60s/70s British model made into a Barbie. She has a cute short ‘n sassy haircut and a fab striped mini-dress. I lost her go-go boots years ago.
Thanks for the opportunity to remember these charming stories from our childhoods. Happy Holidays everyone.
I know this is late, but I still wanted to share. I AM A PEEKER!!!
My Mom and Dad would hide he presents under their bed, so I knew where to look. But, if I missed them, I would carefully untape the gifts under the tree. If my Mom tapped them well I just had to wait.
Fast forward 30 some years…my husband, armed with this info, has decided to wrap all my gifts with duct tape. Ahhh-hahahahaha, did you know that duct tape comes off without tearing on almost all paper. O’h my poor husband, however, he does use different boxes so I do not always get to know. And, a surprise or two under the tree is nice!
Merry Christmas!!!
AH! I missed the deadline but had to share that I feel famous for getting a blog mention! Is it nerdy that I immediately called my sister and bragged?? 🙂
Hi All!! Thanks for these stories!! Sorry I am a little late getting this up, I was flying back east from being in St. Louis.
Even though most of you are PEEKERS!!! AAHHHH!!!
Lucy has chosen a winner at random and the prize goes to:
Amanda, and her varsity sibling peeking team! oh my!!
Amanda, Emily will email you to get your napkin set to you!
strict non peeker but one year Kayla and I decided to try being peekers… we failed miserably. We opened a few gifts and wrapped them back up and the next day when we were opening dad could totally tell that we already knew what was in there. That year gift bags were banned from Christmas forever. I’ve got back to my non peeking ways… way more fun!
I’m not a real peeker, but sometimes I accidentally see things.
My favorite peeking story….
When I was 8 or 9, I found a treasure trove of wrapped gifts in a closet, and methodically shook each one. There was one with my name on it which I just KNEW was Monopoly. I don’t know how, but it just SOUNDED like Monopoly. I could HEAR the little plastic houses and the little metal tokens and the weight and size of the box were just right.
On Christmas morning, I grabbed the box and tore into announcing “Monopoly, Monopoly, I know that’s what this is!” My older brother Bruce, who had recently begun working and had money for gifts from him for the first time, was livid that I had peeked at the gift. He was certain that I had meticulously unwrappted and rewrapped the gift so I could see it. He ALMOST took it back to retaliate. I don’t recall how I persuaded him that I had not violated the code…I had merely guessed right.
I love these little trips down memory lane…