1 Mother 2 Another

Fear not, gentlemen, the deadline for coming up with a brilliant Christmas present has not yet passed you by.  There’s still time to run out and grab a gift that will dazzle your wife and bring her to incoherent cries of joy.

The miracle product?  A home laminating machine.

I asked for (and got!) a laminating machine for my birthday, which makes me very happy.  I can name dozens of uses off the top of my head, but will content myself with just a few:

1. Recipe cards.  Haven’t got time to write out that tattered cookie recipe you ripped out of “Good Housekeeping” five years ago?  Slide that puppy on through the machine and it’s good for twenty years.  Or type up an old family favorite on your computer, laminate, have a go with the three-hole punch, and give as a gift to some worthy cook.
2. The effluvia of mommydom that you can’t bear to part with but is too fragile for its current filing system (also known as the kitchen junk drawer!) – first report cards, artwork, homemade birthday cards with the glitter clinging precariously to the construction paper, etc.
3. Family photos you want to display long-term.  A friend of mine once printed photos of all her friends, laminated them, punched holes and passed ribbon through the tops to make ornaments.  I swear, I’m not Holly Homemaker here – I’m Lucy Lazy, and I’d rather laminate some 4x6s than slave over some glass glue and leftover chandelier crystals to make a precious homemade ornament for a dear friend.  Though I’ll confess I did the leftover crystals thing one year out of curiosity.
4. This is a serious one – before Maddie was born and I got my own laminator, I printed up a few copies of emergency numbers such as doctor, poison control, etc.  I took the lists to Staples and for a grand total of about $4 had them laminated.  They now reside by telephones and in the diaper bag, impervious to spilled baby food jars and leaky diapers.

One caveat –don’t try to laminate your sonogram of the little peanut.  I took mine to Staples and was warned by the tech that thermographed copies don’t laminate, and you’d lose anything on the paper.  So don’t even try it!

What’s got me riding on this train of thought?  I’m working in the family room and keep catching glimpses of my laminator.  I’m longing to crack it open and give it a go but I’ve got miles to go before I sleep tonight and fun with hot sheets of plastic isn’t one of the pit stops.