Christmas with my older brother Ryan has always been interesting. Since he is the oldest and I am the youngest, he would always pick on me the most. Even now, we relentlessly bicker and tease each other. It drives my mom crazy. :)I’m not really sure how our little Christmas tradition started, but every year we always get each other a funny gift or a gift that’s hard to open.

At first we just made it really hard to open each other’s presents. I think he may have started the tradition when one year he used a whole roll of scotch tape on my present. I had to use my dad’s pocket knife to cut through all the tape! Everything is a competition, so I vowed the next year that I would get my revenge. So the following year, I put his present inside a box and wrapped it with duct tape. Then I wrapped it, put it in another box, put it in another box, and on until I had put it inside an old TV Box. It looked like it was a huge present, but it was really just a gift card.

A couple of years ago, he had given an old granny dress he had found at a thrift store as a gag gift. It smelled horrendous, but it was funny. He asked me if I would wear it for him, and jokingly I said that I would wear it to his wedding whenever he gets married. I had given him a St. Louis Cardinals jersey in return because he can’t stand them. I kept the dress in a bag in the corner of my closet (I’m telling you it smelled awful). When he proposed to his girlfriend, I knew immediately that I would stay true to my promise and wear the dress to his wedding. I only wore it before the ceremony for a couple of the formal pictures. I didn’t want to actually ruin any of the wedding pictures and I am too proud for other people to actually see me in it – haha!

Last year, he bought me the DVD Frozen, which he knew that I really liked when I saw it in theatres. When it was time for me to open his present, he informed me that it was in the garage. With a sense of foreboding, I found two old gallon jugs of milk he had filled with water and were now frozen solid. I could tell there was something inside of one of them. I knew that there was no way he could put a gift in there without ruining it, but he told me that I had to get it out anyways. So I took it to the sink and ran hot water over it until it all melted. Inside was a blank CD with the words Frozen written on it. We all had a good laugh and he gave me the real gift which he had hidden behind his back.

Lately I’ve been trying to not work harder, but to think smarter. As much fun as it is wrapping his gift a million times, it takes a long time and I wanted to do something different. I tried to think of the funniest gift I could give him, and Andrew had coincidentally won a coupon to Shutterfly for a free mug. He didn’t want it so he gave it to me.

At first, I browsed the site just looking for something simple or plain for myself – who doesn’t want a free mug with a cute design? But then, I saw one with hearts on it and a place to put a picture of your child or boyfriend, etc. I knew immediately that I wanted my face to be right there and I picked out a hot pink color to be obnoxious. I also stuffed candies and a gift card in it so that he would have something useful as well. It turned out awesome and he could not stop laughing when he opened it.

This year I do believe I’ve outdone myself. I stumbled upon the idea in a similar way. I recently had signed up for a Kohl’s charge card and when it came in the mail, a coupon for an 8×8 hardcover book from Shutterfly came with it. So I made a book about my brother’s undying and never ending love for me and filled it with a bunch of corny pictures of me. I included some baby pictures and some pictures of us. I cannot wait for him to open it! I’m not even going to make him go through ten different boxes to find it.

Here is just a sample of the front cover and some of the pages.

I had the book shipped to my parent’s house and my mom called me the other day letting me know that it came. She couldn’t stop giggling on the phone as she looked at the front cover.

Needless to say, I am pretty excited for Christmas. It’s going to be a funny one at our house, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, too!