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dragonlady7So. For the curious, here follows an account of the Gift-Decorating Extravaganza.
The gift-decorating competition was a whole ton of fun. It was exceptionally intense this year, and some that tied for last place would have won other years. I'll restate the rules here--
1) No more than $50 spent on gift
2) Can't spend more money on packaging than on gift
3) NO PEEKING!! Nobody should know anything about anyone else's gift. Part of the fun is that after you unwrap it, you have to guess who made it.
4) Voting is in two stages: First you vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite while all giftys are being displayed. Then you have an opportunity to change your votes after the gifts are unwrapped (if the unwrapping was the cool part, for example). All votes are counted at the end and the gift with the most overall votes wins.
Starting with the winners, here was this year's field of Kringle gifts in the 8th-Annual Kleinschmidt-Gailitis-Pundurs Gift Wrapping Extravaganza.
[But first, a quick Dramatis Personae:
Dave Kleinschmidt: My boyfriend.
Mrs. Kleinschmidt (Laura): His mother.
Krista Wolff: His sister.
Eric Wolff: Krista's husband, Dave's brother-in-law.
Ruta Pundurs: Dave's aunt, Laura's sister.
Anita Pundurs: Ruta's daughter, Dave's cousin.
Helen Pundurs: Ruta's daughter, Anita's sister, Dave's cousin.
Maris Gailitis: Ruta and Laura's brother, Dave's uncle.
Lesbia (last name unknown to me): Maris's girlfriend of sixteen years, so Dave's pretty-much aunt.]
First Place:
To Uncle Maris, from Krista. About two and a half feet high, it was a precise, hand-drawn replica of the program of "Nunsense". Inside, a small insert proclaimed that a substitution in the cast had been made, and Maris Gailitis would be playing the part of Sister Mary of the Bubbledancers. Inside the insert was wrapped the last Looney Tunes DVD to complete Maris's collection.
Sister Mary of the Angels was a teacher when Maris attended St. Rose Catholic grammar school, and he referred to her as Sister Mary of the Bubbledancers.
A "free gift" included within the program was a wind-up walking nun who spat sparks as she walked.
Second Place:
To Aunt Ruta from Dave, it was a refrigerator box (labeled "Frigidaire" in the proper font) made of cardboard and saran wrap, with a sign above proclaiming that it was "Polszceiwiczki's Meats", and the address was "999 Broadway"-- the location of Buffalo's famous ethnic Polish market, the Broadway Market.
Inside the refrigerator case was a rubber chicken, a jar of Broadway Market Horseradish, and a jar labeled "Pickled Pork Entrails-- Kids Love 'Em!"
The bottom of the case was made of a shirt box, and inside it were three turtlenecks wrapped in butcher paper and labeled and priced as though they were cuts of meat.
Third Place:
To Les from Bridget, it was a diorama of a pre-Giuliani 42nd Street and Broadway street scene. In wildly blinking Christmas lights, stuck through the cardboard from the back, Les's name was written as though it were a musical. Next door, the sign for a bar called "Le Bar" blinked as well. And next door to that, the sign for a place called "Girls Girls Girls -- Live Nudes" blinked too.
The gifts, a watch and six pairs of whimsical socks, were removable through the doors of the theatre, which were cut out and labeled "Entrance".
Honorable Mentions, in no particular order:
To Dave from Maris, a box with a styrofoam head on it was made up to look precisely like the poster from the play "Wicked", down to the artfully-arranged black hair on the witch hat. It contained three t-shirts, one bright purple, one gaudy camoflage, and one proclaiming "Thank You For Pot Smoking" from the Canadian Cannabis Council.
To Helen from Anita, a box wrapped in plaid pyjamas and a ribbon with checkers and playing cards glued to it had a placard asking, Trivial Pursuit-style, "What 1954 Adler & Ross musical (later made into a movie staring Doris Day) am I?". The answer, of course, is "The Pyjama Game," and the box in fact contained pyjamas and a flannel sheet set.
To Mrs. Kleinschmidt from Les, there was a large placard with the front of a playbill from the musical "Chicago," with a pink purse and a pink lei fastened to it. The purse contained a memory card for a digital camera.
To Krista from Helen, a long thin cardboard box was covered in silver paper and outlined in silver pen to look like a New York City subway car, with the photos of various celebrities and Broadway show characters cut out and put into the windows of the car. It contained the Swatch "Bunny Sutra" watch. Helen and Krista spent the rest of the evening trying to decipher the multi-lingual instructions (languages included Latvian and Croatian.)
To Anita from Ruta, a silver-wrapped box had a white top hat (homemade from poster-paper) and a white scarf (homemade from a scrap of curtain), a false rose, and an envelope containing mock tickets that said "Hold for Anita Pundurs." Inside the box was the Godfather DVD Anita had requested.
To Eric from Mrs. K., a large hairspray bottle (labeled in the font of the show "Hairspray") contained about eight different varieties of expensive chocolate, much to Eric's delight.
And, to Bridget from Eric, a replica of Audrey from "Little Shop Of Horrors" contained an assortment of Body Shop and Bath & Body Works products, and a Best Buy gift certificate. (It was labeled, carefully, in glitter paint, "Feed Me, Bridgie".)
It was, needless to say, a strong field. I feel very deeply honored that I received as high a place as I did. It was also decided that themes increase the intensity and creativity of the competition, despite everyone complaining that themes were dumb.
And no less than three people claimed that they had considered doing the Broadway Market as a theme.
So, that was Christmas.
The photos, in order, with more, and with explanations, are here:
http://www.bridget.kelly.name/Pictures/xmas2004/xmas2004.html
The gift-decorating competition was a whole ton of fun. It was exceptionally intense this year, and some that tied for last place would have won other years. I'll restate the rules here--
1) No more than $50 spent on gift
2) Can't spend more money on packaging than on gift
3) NO PEEKING!! Nobody should know anything about anyone else's gift. Part of the fun is that after you unwrap it, you have to guess who made it.
4) Voting is in two stages: First you vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite while all giftys are being displayed. Then you have an opportunity to change your votes after the gifts are unwrapped (if the unwrapping was the cool part, for example). All votes are counted at the end and the gift with the most overall votes wins.
Starting with the winners, here was this year's field of Kringle gifts in the 8th-Annual Kleinschmidt-Gailitis-Pundurs Gift Wrapping Extravaganza.
[But first, a quick Dramatis Personae:
Dave Kleinschmidt: My boyfriend.
Mrs. Kleinschmidt (Laura): His mother.
Krista Wolff: His sister.
Eric Wolff: Krista's husband, Dave's brother-in-law.
Ruta Pundurs: Dave's aunt, Laura's sister.
Anita Pundurs: Ruta's daughter, Dave's cousin.
Helen Pundurs: Ruta's daughter, Anita's sister, Dave's cousin.
Maris Gailitis: Ruta and Laura's brother, Dave's uncle.
Lesbia (last name unknown to me): Maris's girlfriend of sixteen years, so Dave's pretty-much aunt.]
First Place:
To Uncle Maris, from Krista. About two and a half feet high, it was a precise, hand-drawn replica of the program of "Nunsense". Inside, a small insert proclaimed that a substitution in the cast had been made, and Maris Gailitis would be playing the part of Sister Mary of the Bubbledancers. Inside the insert was wrapped the last Looney Tunes DVD to complete Maris's collection.
Sister Mary of the Angels was a teacher when Maris attended St. Rose Catholic grammar school, and he referred to her as Sister Mary of the Bubbledancers.
A "free gift" included within the program was a wind-up walking nun who spat sparks as she walked.
Second Place:
To Aunt Ruta from Dave, it was a refrigerator box (labeled "Frigidaire" in the proper font) made of cardboard and saran wrap, with a sign above proclaiming that it was "Polszceiwiczki's Meats", and the address was "999 Broadway"-- the location of Buffalo's famous ethnic Polish market, the Broadway Market.
Inside the refrigerator case was a rubber chicken, a jar of Broadway Market Horseradish, and a jar labeled "Pickled Pork Entrails-- Kids Love 'Em!"
The bottom of the case was made of a shirt box, and inside it were three turtlenecks wrapped in butcher paper and labeled and priced as though they were cuts of meat.
Third Place:
To Les from Bridget, it was a diorama of a pre-Giuliani 42nd Street and Broadway street scene. In wildly blinking Christmas lights, stuck through the cardboard from the back, Les's name was written as though it were a musical. Next door, the sign for a bar called "Le Bar" blinked as well. And next door to that, the sign for a place called "Girls Girls Girls -- Live Nudes" blinked too.
The gifts, a watch and six pairs of whimsical socks, were removable through the doors of the theatre, which were cut out and labeled "Entrance".
Honorable Mentions, in no particular order:
To Dave from Maris, a box with a styrofoam head on it was made up to look precisely like the poster from the play "Wicked", down to the artfully-arranged black hair on the witch hat. It contained three t-shirts, one bright purple, one gaudy camoflage, and one proclaiming "Thank You For Pot Smoking" from the Canadian Cannabis Council.
To Helen from Anita, a box wrapped in plaid pyjamas and a ribbon with checkers and playing cards glued to it had a placard asking, Trivial Pursuit-style, "What 1954 Adler & Ross musical (later made into a movie staring Doris Day) am I?". The answer, of course, is "The Pyjama Game," and the box in fact contained pyjamas and a flannel sheet set.
To Mrs. Kleinschmidt from Les, there was a large placard with the front of a playbill from the musical "Chicago," with a pink purse and a pink lei fastened to it. The purse contained a memory card for a digital camera.
To Krista from Helen, a long thin cardboard box was covered in silver paper and outlined in silver pen to look like a New York City subway car, with the photos of various celebrities and Broadway show characters cut out and put into the windows of the car. It contained the Swatch "Bunny Sutra" watch. Helen and Krista spent the rest of the evening trying to decipher the multi-lingual instructions (languages included Latvian and Croatian.)
To Anita from Ruta, a silver-wrapped box had a white top hat (homemade from poster-paper) and a white scarf (homemade from a scrap of curtain), a false rose, and an envelope containing mock tickets that said "Hold for Anita Pundurs." Inside the box was the Godfather DVD Anita had requested.
To Eric from Mrs. K., a large hairspray bottle (labeled in the font of the show "Hairspray") contained about eight different varieties of expensive chocolate, much to Eric's delight.
And, to Bridget from Eric, a replica of Audrey from "Little Shop Of Horrors" contained an assortment of Body Shop and Bath & Body Works products, and a Best Buy gift certificate. (It was labeled, carefully, in glitter paint, "Feed Me, Bridgie".)
It was, needless to say, a strong field. I feel very deeply honored that I received as high a place as I did. It was also decided that themes increase the intensity and creativity of the competition, despite everyone complaining that themes were dumb.
And no less than three people claimed that they had considered doing the Broadway Market as a theme.
So, that was Christmas.
The photos, in order, with more, and with explanations, are here:
http://www.bridget.kelly.name/Pictures/xmas2004/xmas2004.html
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 04:18 am (UTC)Smith
Date: 2004-12-28 04:56 pm (UTC)Hey, maybe you two are related now.
- Z
Re: Smith
Date: 2004-12-29 06:31 am (UTC)I'd expected something far more exotic to go with "Lesbia". Ah well.
Hey, maybe we are. I should ask if she has any relatives in Baton Rouge.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 05:54 pm (UTC)I am really very excited by this. Congratulations!!!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 02:22 pm (UTC)The pictures were great. Dave's family is crazy.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 04:15 pm (UTC)Think about it-- how many families do you know who would spontaneously evolve something that requires that much creativity and engineering? It really just started with Les remarking that some of the gifts in their yearly gift exchange were beautifully wrapped and they should have a contest to see who could wrap the most attractively, and Dave responded by making a moose-shaped package out of his.
They're totally nuts. Especially him. Did I mention his Big Gift to me this Xmas was an empty box and I loved it? He's such a nut.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 04:17 pm (UTC)He's such a nut.