To wrap or not to wrap?

I really dislike wrapping presents.  I think it is a waste of time and money.  Not to mention it's not great for the environment, either.  All that time and effort, spent on something that the kids will rip apart as soon as they see it.   A few years ago I tried convincing my husband that we should just leave the gifts from Santa unwrapped under the tree on Christmas morning.  I have some clear memories of Christmas as a child, coming downstairs, flipping on the lights, and feasting my eyes on all of the presents that Santa had brought, unwrapped of course.  I think that was the year that my sister and I got a magic hat set (which will be the subject of tomorrow's post).  However, there was no way to convince my husband that this was a good idea. We must wrap everything! In over sized boxes! With bricks in the bottom to fool them! Ugh.


I taught my nephews to call me Aunt Pretty.
I think Austin was 10 years old before he
realized that my name was Laraine.

Back when I was a working Mom, my time for wrapping was limited.  Our weekends were busy with family activities, sports, and errands.  Mostly I would wrap at night when the kids were in bed. So I would stress out about wrapping all this stuff, stay up  too late, and repeat the cycle the next night until it was done.  And then of course my husband would tell me that I wasn't wrapping the packages "correctly".  Good thing we only have blunt tipped scissors in our house.  Actually he can't help it, he's a Virgo.  Virgo's have an inherent need to compulsively organize and line up things.  I am the polar opposite, and see no need to line up cans in the pantry or load the dishwasher a certain way.  I feel like if the wrapping paper is on the package, then my job is done.  Line up the design? Hide the tape? Please. Give me a break.

Sarah, my 5 year old, has been asking me every day for the past week to help me wrap presents.  Yesterday I finally gave in.  Sarah and Olivia helped me wrap presents for our family members.  Sarah was in charge of the tape, and Olivia wrote out all the gift tags.  Then Sarah wanted to write out some tags, too, and all hell just about broke loose.  Let's just suffice it to say that Olivia ended up in time out and we wrapped it up pretty quickly after that. I bought some more gift wrap (on sale) at CVS today.  Maybe I can get a few more presents wrapped before time for carpool.