That’s a Wrap

While living solo, especially during the holiday season, it helps to let go of expectations towards others. It’s not healthy to hold the bar too high for ourselves either, unless, of course, we want to feel disappointed during this season.

Another of my favored childhood memories was watching presents appear underneath the tree wrapped in Christmas paper. As the days rolled closer toward Christmas, they would magically appear overnight, but there was a reason Mama kept her bedroom door closed and that room off limits this time of year. I’m sure it was overflowing with wrapping paper, bows, scotch tape and name tags.

My fascination with gift wrapping began at a very early age and at some point, I started helping Mama wrap presents. I was in my element by taking a cardboard box and making it pretty and I learned every trick there was to learn back them, long before computers. I even learned to make bows out of a strand of leftover ribbon.

The word spread that I loved wrapping presents and Grandma put me in charge of wrapping hers. Those are some magical memories of Grandma Smith. To enter her spacious guest room, which I used the most and to see it filled with rolls of Christmas paper, colorful tissue, bows, ribbon and gift tags…pure magic!

Alas, with doing anything you love to do that comes naturally, it can be overutilized. What was once joyful began feeling like unpaid work for this teenager, but gratitude stepped in and the love returned.

Living solo, I buy at least one roll of Christmas paper and every year there’s a different theme. This year I bought a 3-pack at World Market, which consists of woodland creatures in nature, playing in the snow, mushrooms for my daughter because she is fascinated by them and large ornaments for her boyfriend for his love of the Christmas tree. It wasn’t a coincidence that all three of these were sold together.

Thanks to Instagram, I can learn how to make more bows and learn endless tricks on how to wrap, but remembering my roots I still make them pretty, yet simple. Living solo, I’ve missed wrapping and unwrapping gifts during the Christmas season, but just like #6 in this previous post, that needed to change. I thought of 3 things I’d seen this year that I wanted, but didn’t buy and purchased them as my gifts.

One of the most awkward moments in life is when someone hands you a gift and says, “I hope you like it,” but that’s not happening this year! Since I chose them, I already love them and look forward to tearing into the paper just to hear the sound it makes. In this season we tend to put everyone else’s needs before our own, but my hope is that we’ll honor our hearts and wrap up something we look forward to unwrapping.