All I Want for Christmas is a Gift Wrap Box
I'm a gift-wrapper-lover. The crinkle of the paper, the cutting, the shaping, the re-arranging are just intricacies--it is the different colored papers that have me numb in the fingertips. The sparkles (or not), the artsy drawings, cartoonish characters, the eighteen hundred Santa Claus themes, and the gazillion different types of Christmas trees, lights and snowmen have me all but drooling weeks before the Christmas season even begins. And that doesn't even include all the bows, ribbon, and nifty cardboard cut-outs that can adorn your lovely gifts.
Truth be told, you can have me at the gift wrap--no matter what the present is inside.
But the real truth is that I never had the time to do the gift-wrap hoopla appropriately. I am either running late in purchasing the gift (as in running to the store just before I show up on your doorstep) or late in getting the perfect gift wrapping assortments. Thus, my gift wrap obsession is only one-sided. I only think I can wrap correctly if given the chance--it has only been testing a small handful of times.
This year I swore it would be different. Shopping was done early. Gift wrapping items purchased even earlier (last year's 75% off sale the day after Christmas). I was pre-empting craziness. And trumping my general habit of being almost late to almost everything. When of course, we decided to move our asses to another home.
The gift wrap didn't even arrive in the new homestead until last night. I'd dragged my sorry but to the old home to check on everything and conveniently realized the boxes of wrapping paper were still on the rolls and shrink-wrapped for the last year just waiting for me to dive in and wrap appropriately this year.
But then, even more to my dismay, I am shipping most of my gifts this year. We are staying home for the holidays. Which, for the most part, is so much less stress the wrapping, packing, and driving, that I am almost in tears. But, that also means if I were to wrap-right, well, the bows and paper will be smooshed and crinkled in shipping boxes... and well, not the way it should be. And why would I bother? It is a whole five days away, and I am just shipping them tomorrow (see? the almost late factor again).
So that leave the kiddo's gifts (from mom and dad of course). And well, he just cares that they are wrapped and under the tree. And even then, if I handed them to him in a cardboard box he'd be happy enough. He only cares about what is IN the box after all.
I'm dismal. Crass. And even a bit bitchy. It has been a helluva work week (it always is pre-holiday). And here I drown amidst color bits of paper, ribbons, glitter, and all things called gift-wrap and want nothing more than a girly cry. The sobbing ugly-face cry that makes no one feel comfortable, especially someone that has to witness it. And I want to do it for no reason at all except, that yet again, I can't wrap presents worth a damn and I just can't admit it. And maybe (just maybe) I am a wee bit stressed out about all other things besides this holiday (but am afraid to admit that as well).
So.
I sit.
I whimper.
Sigh.
And then hoist myself to the wrapping hopper and pull out a roll of the some shiny red paper and roll it out in front of me. There is one gift I have yet to wrap. The one present I allowed myself to buy. The lone present for the hubby. The one we agreed not to purchase for the sake of our financial health (two house payments) and because well the actual new house is enough isn't it? But I did anyway. It's small. It's useless. And it really is the thought that counts. But, I'll be damned. I'm gonna wrap this baby right. Right? And at least then, I can feel I did the gift justice. If only in the thoughtful wrapping.
Truth be told, you can have me at the gift wrap--no matter what the present is inside.
But the real truth is that I never had the time to do the gift-wrap hoopla appropriately. I am either running late in purchasing the gift (as in running to the store just before I show up on your doorstep) or late in getting the perfect gift wrapping assortments. Thus, my gift wrap obsession is only one-sided. I only think I can wrap correctly if given the chance--it has only been testing a small handful of times.
This year I swore it would be different. Shopping was done early. Gift wrapping items purchased even earlier (last year's 75% off sale the day after Christmas). I was pre-empting craziness. And trumping my general habit of being almost late to almost everything. When of course, we decided to move our asses to another home.
The gift wrap didn't even arrive in the new homestead until last night. I'd dragged my sorry but to the old home to check on everything and conveniently realized the boxes of wrapping paper were still on the rolls and shrink-wrapped for the last year just waiting for me to dive in and wrap appropriately this year.
But then, even more to my dismay, I am shipping most of my gifts this year. We are staying home for the holidays. Which, for the most part, is so much less stress the wrapping, packing, and driving, that I am almost in tears. But, that also means if I were to wrap-right, well, the bows and paper will be smooshed and crinkled in shipping boxes... and well, not the way it should be. And why would I bother? It is a whole five days away, and I am just shipping them tomorrow (see? the almost late factor again).
So that leave the kiddo's gifts (from mom and dad of course). And well, he just cares that they are wrapped and under the tree. And even then, if I handed them to him in a cardboard box he'd be happy enough. He only cares about what is IN the box after all.
I'm dismal. Crass. And even a bit bitchy. It has been a helluva work week (it always is pre-holiday). And here I drown amidst color bits of paper, ribbons, glitter, and all things called gift-wrap and want nothing more than a girly cry. The sobbing ugly-face cry that makes no one feel comfortable, especially someone that has to witness it. And I want to do it for no reason at all except, that yet again, I can't wrap presents worth a damn and I just can't admit it. And maybe (just maybe) I am a wee bit stressed out about all other things besides this holiday (but am afraid to admit that as well).
So.
I sit.
I whimper.
Sigh.
And then hoist myself to the wrapping hopper and pull out a roll of the some shiny red paper and roll it out in front of me. There is one gift I have yet to wrap. The one present I allowed myself to buy. The lone present for the hubby. The one we agreed not to purchase for the sake of our financial health (two house payments) and because well the actual new house is enough isn't it? But I did anyway. It's small. It's useless. And it really is the thought that counts. But, I'll be damned. I'm gonna wrap this baby right. Right? And at least then, I can feel I did the gift justice. If only in the thoughtful wrapping.
