You know how enamoured I am with my veggie box. I got so excited for veggie box delivery the other day that when I squealed to B1 “Ooooh! Guess who’s coming?!” she answered “Christmas!” Aw no, sorry honey. It is a bit like Christmas….for Mummy?! But, despite my amour, I have to admit there are some items I find piling up and not being used. Namely, potatoes.

I thought our family ate a reasonable amount of potatoes but those brown paper bags of spuds just don’t seem to be depleting. The bottom of my pantry looks like my potatoes had a wild party and all the potatoes in the neighbourhood swung by. I’ve got kipflers, sebago and royal blues. I’ve got boiling potatoes, roasting potatoes and itty bitty salad potatoes. I really needed to do something about “The Potato Situation”. Finally I remembered a Christmas tradition…

Making Christmas wrapping paper! I have told you before, I am sure, that I am a hopeless stationary addict. I cannot stop myself buying stamps, ribbons and alphabet stickers. It’s a bit of a compulsion. A compulsion that began with Christmas wrapping. Sure, as a kid I loved getting presents but I really loved wrapping presents. I loved choosing a theme for that year’s festive season and wrapping all my gifts in the same way. One year I went out to a warehouse that supplied food containers to restaurants and bought chinese takeaway noodle boxes, in bulk. Everyone got their gift in a noodle box that Christmas. Another year was all pink and orange. I’m particularly partial to satin ribbon, brown paper and using red (good for Christmas, Valentines Day, Chinese New Year and birthdays!) Have I mentioned that I’m a bit ahh…weird?!

Anyway, now I am putting both my potatoes and my daughter to work. I’ve loosened up on my “particular” (aka. fussy, obsessive and annoying) habits re: my wrapping being matching and perfect and consistent. I’m not using fluro paints because it is trendy but because they’re lovely non-toxic finger paints I bought from the Museum of Contemporary Art (side note: one of my favourite places. Ever.), that I just happened to have lying around. So away we went. Enormous roll of white paper, paint and a ridiculous abundance of potatoes…

Some stamping, some finger painting, some hand prints. The end result? Quite sweet I thought.

But more importantly – such good fun. Who knew I could combine my love of stationary and food? B1 was entertained, I had a ball, my potatoes did not go to waste. Happy, happy, happy. Truly a festive season moment. Don’t you think?

HUGS, Hannah x