Hello to All!
I am the mother of four children and Christmas has always been a great time for us to be together. We draw numbers to see the opening order of the gifts then everyone watches as we take turns opening the gifts. This always makes the gift opening last longer and since we clean up the paper after each gift is opened, we don't risk something being thrown away as happened to me one Christmas at my grandmother's house. I enjoy adding to my kids suspense as to which gifts are theirs because I code the gifts. I do not put names on the gifts. Instead I create a unique code that keeps them guessing as to which gift is theirs. I am having trouble creating a code this year so I would like some suggestions. Examples I have used in the past: bows that matched the color of their soccer teams, a different paper for each child with something on the paper that depicted what they had accomplished that year (Santa in his sleigh driving his reindeer for my son who had his driving permit etc.), the first letter of their teachers last name. As they have grown, the codes became harder: using an alphabet/number code to add the letters in their name and continuing to add the digits until it was a single digit. I gave them a clue sheet for this one. This one took some time for them to figure out. They all seemed to get frustrated with it so I told them I would not use codes again. The next year, I put the correct names on the gifts, and the kids were disappointed there was not a code to solve. I have used a quater, dime, nickle, and penny then added the value of the coins along with the year on each coin. I again reduced the number to a single digit. For this code, I gave the kids the bag of coins I had used for their gifts and they had to figure it out. I am totally stumped as to how I should do the gifts this year. Does anyone do something like this? I would appreciate any suggestions on a code I can use this year. My kids are 21, 19, 17, and 14. :gift:
I am the mother of four children and Christmas has always been a great time for us to be together. We draw numbers to see the opening order of the gifts then everyone watches as we take turns opening the gifts. This always makes the gift opening last longer and since we clean up the paper after each gift is opened, we don't risk something being thrown away as happened to me one Christmas at my grandmother's house. I enjoy adding to my kids suspense as to which gifts are theirs because I code the gifts. I do not put names on the gifts. Instead I create a unique code that keeps them guessing as to which gift is theirs. I am having trouble creating a code this year so I would like some suggestions. Examples I have used in the past: bows that matched the color of their soccer teams, a different paper for each child with something on the paper that depicted what they had accomplished that year (Santa in his sleigh driving his reindeer for my son who had his driving permit etc.), the first letter of their teachers last name. As they have grown, the codes became harder: using an alphabet/number code to add the letters in their name and continuing to add the digits until it was a single digit. I gave them a clue sheet for this one. This one took some time for them to figure out. They all seemed to get frustrated with it so I told them I would not use codes again. The next year, I put the correct names on the gifts, and the kids were disappointed there was not a code to solve. I have used a quater, dime, nickle, and penny then added the value of the coins along with the year on each coin. I again reduced the number to a single digit. For this code, I gave the kids the bag of coins I had used for their gifts and they had to figure it out. I am totally stumped as to how I should do the gifts this year. Does anyone do something like this? I would appreciate any suggestions on a code I can use this year. My kids are 21, 19, 17, and 14. :gift:
