Wrapping and Christmas Cards and Baking - Oh, My!

I’ve been quite busy lately with the Christmas rush, so columns haven’t been forthcoming. I can’t seem to get my creative groove on, which is a little unnerving. After all, I’m a creative person at heart.

Christmas and holiday cards are the task that I usually procrastinate about, until I begin to see them pouring in from others who have already tackled the daunting task. The entire week before I actually undertook the task, I kept singing, "Sending Christmas Cards! Yo ho, Christmas cards!" from the Bob Rivers Twisted Tune, "The Twelve Pains of Christmas". My daughter would giggle every time I did it, but I knew I had to take care of it, or else I'd leave it for the very last minute. Which is much more of who I am, but who I didn't want to be this year.

After I finished mailing out the countless Christmas and holiday cards, it occurred to me that I had a pile of gifts in need of wrapping. Because I wanted to give it an extra effort this year, I refrained from tossing the gifts into pretty little bags, and opted rather to wrap.

Oh, boy, not a pretty sight.

I’m not a wrapper, by any means. For some reason, it seems to take me forever, where my husband is finished within an hour. His gifts look absolutely stunning, professional, neat. Bows and ribbons that are perfectly curled abound, and each gift is lovelier than the previous.

Mine look like they are growing cysts. Seriously. I’m a little jealous that he can make a gift box look beautiful. I mean, really.

It isn’t because I don’t take the time to make my gifts look neat, mind you. It took me six hours to wrap about twenty gifts. I cut the excess paper off, I try to tack down the edges so that nothing looks sloppy, or out of place.

Suffice it to say that I might have to consider gift bags again next year.

I helped my daughter to wrap her gifts this year. Usually, she is a gift bagger as well, but I convinced her that wrapping was the way to go, for a variety of reasons. First, we had a bunch of gift boxes and about six hundred rolls of wrapping paper in the attic, from those countless “After Christmas“ sales. Second, she was bored out of her skull, and wrapping would take up some of her excess energy. Third, I thought that she’d be a better wrapper than me, especially since she has some of my husband’s blood running through her veins.

We had a great time, just the two of us, and by the end of the entire adventure, I knew that she felt truly accomplished. I even taught her a trick that I’d learned in my Brownie troup, many moons ago. We made tissue flowers as bows for the gifts, and they looked really cool. I was impressed with how pretty the gifts looked. And I was really happy to get all of those department store bags off the floor. It was also great to know that there were still some creative juices flowing.

Also, her gifts weren’t lumpy. Glad to see that she didn’t take after me in that respect.

As a child, it thrilled me to see homes decorated with lights and various other items related to the season. I used to count all of the Menorahs that I could find in the windows, and often wished that we could put one in ours. I gushed when I saw a molded Santa on a lawn, or could see a Christmas tree in someone’s home from the street. To this day, I still act like a child when I see homes, all lit up. It’s one of the reasons why I will tolerate that new show, “The Great American Christmas Light Fight”. I don’t condone the whole “mine is better than yours” mentality, but I do enjoy looking at how beautiful the homes look. I mention this because it’s our intention, as a family, to get out into the car with hot chocolate and Christmas tunes blaring on the radio, and search out all the homes that we can find with beautiful lights. Even if the home isn’t something that could be seen from outer space, I still enjoy that feeling of saying, “Oooh! Look at that one!”

Our next adventure will be baking cookies. It’s a family affair, and it usually encompasses three days. We have narrowed down the variety that we make to about nine, although this year, for gluten free reasons, we might end up making more than that. It takes this long because one of the varieties that we make yearly are Linzer Tarts, and those take several days to make, between chilling the dough, baking the cookies, allowing them to cool, and then adding the jelly. It might seem like a lot of work, but we gift cookies every year, and they are appreciated wherever they are given. Just a little more of the magic of the season. I'm pretty sure that the three of us are descendants of Santa's elves. I have the stature to prove it. :) Spreading Christmas joy comes naturally for us, and my heart is fuller because of it. Joy and love, as it is so often said, makes the world go 'round.

All kidding aside, we have a lot to be grateful for this year, on a multitude of levels. We share what we have with others, which really brings the magic to life. We don’t just share with loved ones, either. It’s absolutely important to share with those less fortunate. The aspect of giving helps to broaden the heart. And isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Isn’t that what Life is all about?

In closing, I’d like to offer you all a blessed holiday season. Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year to each and every one of you, as well. As Tiny Tim so cheerfully stated, “God Bless Us, every one!”