[Friend2U]

I used to love gift wrapping...making every corner sharp and crisp...ribbons and bows color coordinated...arranged just perfectly under the tree.

This year was a real struggle. Had I had more money I would have just bought gift bags. I was completely exhausted just wrapping one box....no sharp corners....no ribbons or bows.

What a sad way to measure my decline of this awful disease!!! I have known daily that I have gradually regressed. But this was a real eye opener!

[Erin524]

Back in 2001 when I had a job in a walmart fabric department (back when they had such a thing) and when I also had another job in a Hobby Lobby (also sells fabric) and I had just gotten my sewing machine, I made fabric gift bags.

I bought a ton of Xmas themed fabric after Christmas, along with a bunch of patriotic themed fabric after the Fourth of July (my Xmas tree is done in all patriotic ornaments) and every time I got kind of bored, I'd make a bag or three. (basic bags, fold the fabric so the outside is facing, and pin it, hem the open edges, and sew up the sides. Then turn it rightside out and fill with present(s) and tie it closed with ribbon and a nametag.

Saved us tons of money in wrapping paper that we're just going to rip off the presents. I buy new rolls of ribbon every year after Christmas, since I sometimes lose it, or it wears out. I reuse the gift tags. It's just me and my parents, so if I run out of blank name tags or if I cant find one that already has the person's name on it, I'll scratch out the name of the last person and put the name of who's getting the present on the tag.

My parents think I started doing the fabric bags because I wanted to save trees. Nope. I'm lazy! I was lazy before the MS, and now I'm even lazier. Wrapping presents with paper is way too much work. Fabric gift bags are really easy to make, and I still kind of like sewing as long as it's just straight lines down the side of the fabric. I just hate wrapping paper around a present that's just going to get ripped off the present a few hours later and tossed out.

I also have some fabric that I've hemmed the cut edges of, and I use that to drape over oversized presents if we have any. This year, we also bought a set of cardboard boxes that were already decorated in a Christmas theme from Costco. Those really came in handy for a few things we got this year. We'll be reusing those too. I'll have to go take a picture of my tree in a little bit.

What's kind of nice about not using all that paper, we dont have to have a huge trash bag to stuff the paper into. I left a shopping bag from Target in the room so that we can corral the paper from the four presents that we actually wrapped with paper.

[doydie]

I love gift bags. A nice lady at a Hallmark store showed me how to put the tissue paper in them and they just look so special. And if someone throws them out I rescue them and reuse them. You can jsut put a new tag on it!

[SallyC]

Right there with you Friend. It was tough, this year. My nimble fingers aren't so nimble anymore. I used to make all my own bows.

[Dejibo]

I had to have the DH write the Christmas cards this year. I simply dont have the dexterity to get it done. I fumble, drop and cramp.

Once upon a time I could wrap up a storm! now I dont even try. I drop things into gift bags or have the store wrap them.