Merry week-after-Christmas! I thought now would be a fitting time to come talk about the stomach flu I had last week that ruined our vacation.

Ha! Just kidding! (Well, not about the stomach flu. That actually happened, unfortunately.) I meant that I thought now would be a fitting time to come do an update on my pledge to take the No Gift Wrap Challenge this year.

At home we all did wonderfully; we used (and recycled) gift bags. And I’m very pleased to report that after traveling to visit family we also refrained from using wrapping paper… but our solutions on the road weren’t nearly so elegant. Because we had shipped so many items to our destination, and because several of them were too large for any gift bags we already possessed, anyway, we ended doing a lot of “Here’s your present, sorry it isn’t wrapped.”

So the good news is that we stuck to our pledge not to use gift wrap this year. But the bad news is that I feel like we looked like thoughtless and/or cheap people with an inability to plan. My sister-in-law actually sewed the bag she put my gift into, and she’s inspired me to look for some cheap fabric and prepare better for next year.

How did you do this year? Did you give up paper? If so, how did it go? If not, did you take some other iddy biddy step towards greening your gift-giving?