Not So Perfect Gift Wrapping

Lisa's Blog
8 Comments

Good Monday morning!  I hope you all had a delightful weekend of spending time with loved ones and trying to make yourself calm down from the pressure of making sure you have your gifts in order.

My weekend was full to the brim (Is that a word?  Brim?  Or did I just make that up?)  Anyway, it was overflowing with activity yet I feel I have little to say about it.  We did everything from take a small family trip to going to parties to attending church to eating pizza.  Really, it’s all kind of a blur of joy.

I did finally get a few gifts wrapped and under the tree.  I pulled the hidden gifts out of my closet and laid them on my bed and surveyed the scene.  I am not the best at wrapping gifts.  I’d like to be.  I’d love to have beautiful boxes under the tree covered in matching bows and glittery tags.  My friend Sara is a master at it.  Her tree looks like this:

Frankly, I am simply too lazy.  I just slap paper onto the box and, I’m sorry to say, I don’t make a lot of effort to conceal bumps or bulges.  I just wrap right over them and tell the kids not to pick up anything.  “Just look, don’t touch!” I say.

Sorry kids, we aren’t going to be those people that shake our presents and turn them around in our hands.  You were given a mother that doesn’t have the energy to put in the effort it takes to sneakishly conceal the parts that stick out of the side of the box.  You can do all of the guessing you want….from across the room.

And tags…oh I’d love to make them.  But no, I just write their name on the wrapping paper with a sharpie.  I don’t even write who it’s from.  They’ll just have to figure it out by process of elimination.

A few years ago I made some really cute, giant tags for their stocking bags (we use gift bags and not the real stockings).  So I just kept them and use the same tags year after year.  Score one for Mommy.

I still have several more gifts to wrap.  Amazon.com has been my store of choice this year.  The last of the gifts should arrive this week and I will quickly cover them in whatever paper I have on hand and slide them behind the tree….hoping no one will notice the odd shapes of the packages inside.

So if you thought things were perfect here at the Point and all tied up with matching bows….now you know the truth.  And the best part is….no one cares.  We are so happy to be together and spend time sharing our gifts on Christmas morning that no one will even think about the wrapping.

I am sure there’s a Biblical analogy in there somewhere.  But I’m too lazy to figure it out.

8 Comments

  2. That sounds just like me! I can’t be bothered to spend hours wrapping things up super pretty to only have them ripped off in seconds and thrown in the bin- seems such a waste of time and effort!

  3. Oh, I wanted to see Sara’s site…but the link is not working 🙁 I’m with you – I don’t do much when it comes to wrapping. My daughter loves it and is now my dedicated wrapper of everything but her gifts. She sits down in the basement for hours wrapping and tying on things, taping with tons of tape. I think someday she’ll be a real pro!

    Becky B.
    http://www.organizingmadefun.com
    Organizing Made Fun

  4. It’s gift bags and tissue paper around here. I’m with you! Wrapping is one of those jobs I do NOT enjoy. I’m a “shortest distance between two points” type and just want it finished ASAP. Maybe someday, when all the children are grown and gone, I will enjoy such things and have beautifully wrapped gifts. Or not! 🙂

  5. Thanks for the nod. Next year you provide the ribbon and I’ll provide the bows, deal?

    Maybe someday, after my kids are grown and gone, I can get a job at a department store wrapping department. Seasonally, of course.

    I’ve pretty much got it down to a science now. I used to wait and wrap all the gifts just a day or two before Christmas — then just put the gifts out on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed. But now I try to wrap them early and get to enjoy looking at them all season long. (And don’t tell the kids, but I like to try to throw those little shakers off by adding stuff to the boxes, like wood blocks and jingle bells to rattle around…)

    My thinking is, there isn’t much on the inside — may as well make the outside look purdy!

  6. Sara’s stockings are phenomenal! You did a lovely job on them.

    Did you get my DM about stockings? I’ll guess I’ll work on mine during 2012.

    No tree this year for us, so no fussing with wrapped gifts. We gave our kids events and money this year. Dana took Grandma to see Nutcracker Suite in St. Louis last weekend. The married kids wanted a Filipino-carved wood nativity, and money towards their iPad2. And for me, every day is Christmas with Hot Lips.

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