I think gift wrapping is probably one of my favourite things to do.
(And on a side note rabbit tail, I really miss the days in the mall in November and December when I, along with my daughter-in-law Jade would volunteer our time to wrap gifts and raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and the Child Development Centre. )
As far as joy, it's right up there with laying on a tropical beach soaking up vitamin D and cancer cells.
Maybe not quite as high as coaching one of your grandchildren through the birth canal and into life on earth. But it does bring me joy none-the-less.
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| Theme wrapping is a thing with me. There will be NO misshapen gifts nor things that don't match the current year's colour scheme. - else they will wait in the other room until it's time to open them. |
Sometimes beautiful paper is all glittery and sparkly There is nothing more magical. Except when it comes from glitter hell. This year's "tree" paper ranks as such.
"Devil's Dust" I call it. But C'est la vie. It's pretty.
And the devil's dust is spread from the basement, where I wrapped the gifts, along a path up the stairs leading to the resting place under the tree.
It's hell to clean up It still brings me joy.
But things have changed,
My family gift buying used to include three children and their dad who didn't want gifts, and one "name-drawn sibling, parent, niece or nephew.'
Gone are the days of "gift opening games" that drag the event out for 2-3 hours.
Gone are the days where everyone gets 2-9 gifts each of things that Granny loves and/or found for an extremely reasonable price - starting back in January with clearance sales.
These days, Jim and I have 29 children, grandchildren, their spouses and a great granddaughter.
It's getting out of hand.
Even spending $200 on each would amount to equaling a pretty decent vaycay in Hawaii.
And I could guarantee that I'd get more happiness from a tropical vacation than their combined glee at receiving clearance-clearance items from superstore or a made-in-china item from an Amazon's Prime Day sale.
So for the most part, our kids get a baking tray, or a high five, or nothing,
The wee grands still get a gift. I try to stay current and get something thoughtful and appreciated. But that can be hard in today's rapidly changing market, whims and wishes.
The bigger grands get a token cash e-transfer that they share with their spouse.
And Jed gets a half dozen or so household and personal items that he'd never buy for himself - kitchen items, socks, underwear and hygiene crap.
And Jimmy gets a "family thing" that I would have bought anyway .... even if he didn't look at the receipt and/or credit card statement to accidentally discover what's coming.
So often the gifting seems superficial.
But then I get to wrap it and put it under the tree.
And suddenly it all becomes about me....
It's so pretty.
And matchy.
And magical.
And Granny is grateful...
