Wrapping it up

I must confess a failure of mine that I believe I have passed on to my children:  I am unable to wrap gifts.  I confess this today after wrapping Christmas presents.   You may be thinking: just watch the many tutorials on wrapping on you tube and you'll figure it out.--been there, done that.    It's like those videos of how to fold fitted sheets into neat squares; it looks so easy when someone else does it.  I think this year's wrapping projects are actually my best yet, but I still haven't unlocked the secret.  All my wrapped boxes have the paper pattern right side up, most of them have square edges, none of the paper is torn at the edges, and best of all: I didn't give up!  Or, maybe you wonder how I can blog about such a mundane topic.  I'm pretty sure I can fill at least 5 paragraphs explaining and expounding on this particular weakness that I've lived with all my life.

I love wrapping paper because it has so many colors and designs.  I search for sturdy paper that won't tear easily and that has some kind of grid or geometric pattern that will give me guide lines so that when I cut the paper it will be somewhat straight (that's another problem I have that may be related to this one; I can't draw a straight line very well so I don't cut straight, either).  This year I found a huge roll of heavy wrapping paper at Costco that is reversible!  How cool is that?  And I decided that I would wrap the girls' gifts in one pattern and the boys' gifts in the reverse pattern.  Since this post is confessional I will admit that I already messed up that plan by wrapping a gift for Aaron with the wrong pattern.  But I fixed it:  I wrapped the outside of the wrapped box with a strip from the reverse-boy pattern.  Problem solved.

I love wrapping paper but I also get excited about wrapping gifts.  Basically, I approach every gift wrapping opportunity with hope and optimism:  this gift will be my best wrapping yet.  This year I got smart and kept lots of amazon boxes so that all my gifts could go in a box first.  You're probably saying to yourself: of course, who would wrap a strangely-shaped gift without putting it into a square or rectangular box first anyway?  But that kind of question is what separates true gift wrappers from people like me.  Just like the assumption that watching people on you tube wrap gifts means that I will become proficient at wrapping like they are.

So, I have beautiful wrapping paper, square or rectangular boxes, tape, and scissors.  I have my large cutting board as my surface so I don't cut crooked or pull the boxes onto my lap at some point. The stage is set for an easy gift wrapping session.  I can see in my mind what I need to do; cut some paper off the roll and begin.  This I believe is where everything starts to go wrong.  And I think this is why the you tube videos are useless.  They don't explain how much paper I should use.  If someone would just give me a rule or procedure for cutting the right size of paper for the box I am wrapping, I think I could actually become an expert gift wrapper (see the eternal, hopeful optimism?).

Wrapping becomes a full-body experience with tape sticking to fingers, the gift in my lap so I can hold a corner flap down while I twist around to locate the scissors that have ended up just out of reach to cut extra paper that I didn't know I would have and don't know what to do with on the end flaps.  Effort and care goes into every gift I wrap even if it may not seem so by looking at the finished product.

I wrote at the beginning of this post that I fear I have passed on my poor wrapping skills to my children.  As I sit here writing I look across the room at a very large box that has upside down snowmen on it.  I also see a cowboy boot wrapped mostly in a penguin pattern--I say 'mostly' because the toe of the boot has the reverse pattern of snowmen.  Beside the boot is a wrapped 2-liter soda bottle.  Do you see why my use of boxes this year is inspiring?

This brings me to another confession: we have in the past wrapped gifts in pillowcases, towels, blankets, socks, brown paper bags or store bags.   NOT Christmas gifts, usually, but birthday gifts don't always get the same time and care in presentation.  Sometimes it seems too time-consuming and expensive to go out and buy birthday wrapping paper and wrap a gift for just one child who will tear it apart in a few seconds anyway.  And since I pointed out the wrapped cowboy boot that is being used to hold a gift, I must also confess the odd-shaped gift that has a stapler sitting on top of it underneath the wrapping.  The offspring of mine who did this said it was because she doesn't want the recipient to guess what the gift is.  I guess it didn't occur to her to use a box to disguise the gift's shape and weight.

I don't know if anyone outside of my immediate family has problems with gift wrapping, but I do feel better admitting my inadequacies.  My gift wrapping failures offer a valuable and practical lesson similar to the adage: don't judge a book by its cover.  Not every thing or everyone has external beauty.  We must look beyond the external wrappings; it's what's on the inside that counts.  That is the real gift.