And the Beards Win

My family has many traditions for Christmas. The kids can only open the stockings before the parents are up. Gifts are saved until after the first cup of coffee is in mum and dad's hands. We take turns opening the gifts. The person who opens a gift, gets to choose a gift for the next person (and so on until all the gifts are opened). There is some sort of sweet bread for breakfast, either cardamon braid or sticky buns (this year was cardamon braid). And finally there must be at least one funny gift.

The last rule is one that us kids kind of made. I think it started with giving my dad a tie, but my sister and I felt that we needed to make it more interesting. So we put it about 10 boxes all nested together. There have been duck tape rapped presents and sticks in boxes. One year my siblings gave me a pair of socks, but each sock was in a different box (opening a box with just one sock in it is rather annoying). Last year my sister and brothers sent me on a trip around the house to find my presents. Also my then 16 year old brother got his very own barbie doll (long story behind that one... lol).

So when it came time to brain storm about gifts this year, I knew that I needed to have something good.

Beards. Thats right the great brown furry beards on my brother's wonderful mugs are of my own creation.  I also made the green hat for a 'real' present. There was a good deal of laughter and joking about the beards. But I think the picture above about sums up the wonderfulness of it all. 

I finally got the pictures from my sister, so I figured I would share them with you all. Any one else have really crazy gift giving rules?