I've spent the last two days up to my eyeballs in ribbon and wrapping paper. The last few years I have made a lot of the gifts we give to people, but this year I was not so motivated. Instead, I've had a lot of fun collecting gifts along the road of life.

I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year. It's the first year in nine years that I am not working retail in some capacity and it feels great. Yesterday I poured over my wrapping paper collection and chose two coordinating papers, then I hauled out my rubber stamps, pinking shears and glue stick, made hang tags and bound each package with lots of twine.

Of course, once I sat down on the floor to commence my wrapping festivities, I was joined by two furry not-so-helpful helpers. Henry came and and wedged himself in the tightest burrow he could while still monitoring my every move.

Lola went for a more active approach. First she started on my left...

then she made a full circle inspecting every gift, paper choice and scissor making sure to step on each before moving on to the next.

Finally I made some headway. I call this year "2007, the year of the GIANT gift tag." I like how they look and I'm excited to give them!

This is Susan's gift. I've very excited about it.

Oh, and look, Jenny's gift got some special stamping treatments!