Is that a wooden shoe? No, its a wood box, stapled shut.

He finally did it. My dear brother went and used wood, and created a good wooden box to house my gift in. You need a couple of things to pull this off...wood, staples, a durable gift, or one that won't be damaged when hand tools go through it, and gumption. You need gumption to open it too.

Knowing my brother isn't stupid, once I got the tools, I was able to beat the box up a little. However, we need background, its not meant as whining, though it was a quite stressful day, but when you drive to a town three hours away for a funeral the night before the family gathering(for those not affected by the funeral), and you drive three hours back and don't finish the stuffed animals you'd planned to give to two of the kids, you get a little stressed.

After a potentially quick trip to target to buy two gifts and stopping at home to unload the boyfriend's car and load up my truck-my brother's gift would have left no mirror in boyfriend's car. I was a little stressed and I had brought in the bag where my handy-dandy multi-purpose tool was waiting for Christmas reverie. The tool I needed for Christmas gift wrap was sitting warm and snug and useless on my couch. No one wanted to bring me a screwdriver.

Let me explain the box before I get too far ahead of myself...The sides were nearly one inch thick, and about 8 inches long. The box was about six inches across. The ends were thin pieces of veneer or laminate type wood at a mere 3/16 of an inch. The ends were stapled on. He did leave little lips at the edges of the box. This could have easily been removed with some prying from my multi-purpose tool flat head screwdriver part. No one found me a screwdriver though, since said gerber/multi-purposee tool was sitting comfortably at home on my couch.

My brother did acquiesce after a few moments and brought me a hammer. I attempted to pry it off with the claw-head, as I didn't know the lip trick. The things they don't teach you in wood-shop in seventh grade, and if they did(which I'm sure they didn't), you have long since forgot. Finally, after pulling and clawing with the hammer claw, I decided my brother was smart enough not to put anything breakable in the box, and would leave room for destruction.

I smacked the head of the hammer into the thin wood type board on the ends and then clawed the rest of the veneer type stuff off the end to find a nice bag of Starbuck's coffee. Next year, I think I'm bringing a drill complete with attachments...now off to Home Depot to buy a good drill and pea grinder.