My favorite part of the holidays is finding the perfect gifts for everyone on my list. Even long after the gift exchanging has completed, I still find myself oohing and ahhing over what a great gift that <insert cool object here> would be for <insert friend or relative here>. And sometimes I go ahead and buy the gifts, where they sit until I am ready to (gulp) wrap them, which - left without a special occasion deadline - can be a while.
See, I am a horribly gift-wrap-challenged individual. I am afflicted with the inability to cut a straight line into wrapping paper, whether with scissors or one of those special wrapping-paper-cutting tools, even on paper that has those handy grid lines. Tape will split down the center of the roll when I try to tear it. I can even screw up a gift bag (they tear; who knew?). I read a tip somewhere along the series of tubes we know as the Internet that wrapping a gift using tissue paper and cinching cellophane around it is, like, the easiest thing ever that, like, looks as though it was totally not easy. Easy, sure, but do you know how much cellophane that takes? Hint: more than a little. Although, in all fairness, I can't say with certainty I was even doing that right. For a long time, my favorite toy store was Zany Brainy, who would wrap the presents for me...but they closed. Once, I bought an oddly-shaped toy that was too big for any of the bags I had on hand, and I had *no* clue how to wrap it. So I tried to shape my own "bag" out of practically transparent tissue paper. It sort of worked, since it was for a baby, and didn't really need to be a surprise to anyone except the baby, who I'm sure could have cared less about it even being wrapped at all.
I am also guilty of having committed the ultimate gift wrapping sin: using too little paper and having a section of exposed present. The only thing you can do in this situation is to unwrap and start over with more paper. But that's not what I did. I simply took a scrap of the wrapping paper and taped it into place over the gap. Oh yes, I went there.
Let me state on record that it is rare that I even notice how well a gift to me is wrapped. There are exceptions, such as one particular friend of mine who uses gift wrap as her artistic medium (expensive ribbon, stamped images, extravagant gift tags, bonus small gifts used as further decoration), but outside of that, my attitude is more, "Hey! A present! Whatisitwhatisitwhatisitwhatisitwhatisitwhatisitwhatisit?" And I hope that my giftees feel the same when I present their, you know, presents. Even more so, I hope that they feel that the gift is as perfect for them as I did. Because at the end of the day, gift wrapping is like a book cover: you look at it once or twice, but it's the inside you're really going to enjoy. So, if you're my friend or relative, know that I've chosen a gift for you that I believe will delight you and bring you years of enjoyment. Just don't expect a professional wrapping job, unless Zany Brainy reopens.
