Do you buy Christmas and birthday presents for your whole family? We do and I Iove it! We have quite a big family so the other day I totted up how many presents we buy:
Together, Colin and I have 4 siblings, 2 brothers-in-law, 3 children, 2 sons-in-law, 2 grandchildren, 6 nieces, 3 nephews, 2 great-nieces, and 7 great-nephews. As well as birthday gifts for all these we also buy for 3 friends and 4 children-of-friends. A grand total of 38.
At Christmas we add 7 spouses of nieces and nephews and 5 parents of our sons-in-law.
When it comes to wrapping paper we’ve certainly used rolls and rolls over the years! Our new resolution to not buy it again could prove quite challenging. Most wrapping paper is not recyclable, either because it contains foil or glitter, or because it is not of sufficient quality. Unless it gets re-used it goes to landfill or is burned.
We have 3 birthdays in February. I’ve used up some stock paper for William and Henry but ran out before I could wrap James’.
So the first recipient of a non-wrapping-paper wrapped present is James who receives his gift in second-hand brown paper. I also found some paper tape in the cupboard.
I’ve made some labels to explain why our gifts are being wrapped so strangely which I’ll use for the first few months. Believe it or not there are people who don’t read this blog and may not be expecting it!
I am a woman of a certain age (not 60 yet!) who lives in Bristol. I’ve lived almost my whole life in Bristol, with a short sojourn in Cornwall in my teens. I am trying to lead my life in an ethical way in all areas and hope to explore what this means.
I have four passions and several interests so I hope I will have plenty to write about. My passions are my family, knitting, cricket and St Peter’s Hospice. My other interests are volunteering, the environment, reading, TV, films & theatre, fundraising, chronic fatigue, mental health and eating. My non-interests are animals, housework, football, rugby and cooking.
I come from a family of four – two sisters and a brother. Our parents dies a few years ago. I am married to my soulmate Colin, an amazing man who tolerates my funny ways and supports me in everything I do. We have three children and two wonderful granddaughters. I am so proud of my family – we must have done something right as they are all good people. I have two sons-in-law who I love like my own and together we all make up a family unit where everyone loves and respects everyone else.
I am a total hypochondriac but do have some genuine problems, some of which I may talk about at a later date. At the moment I am overweight and have just started to eat more healthily, which I think is the answer to weight loss. We were on holiday last week and enjoyed puddings and cakes every day.
I work part-time and Colin is recently retired. This means that we have been able to spend much more time together doing some of the things we’ve been meaning to do – some planned and some spontaneous. I love this period of my life – I just wish I had the energy to match the time and the opportunities available!
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Ethical Knitting Nana 