I was the helper in gift wrapping at our house for many many years until Emily was old enough to help. Mom and I had a system for getting all the gifts wrapped. She would be in one room boxing gifts and writing numbers on them before bringing them to me for gift wrapping. Yes, I said numbers. My math teacher mom used a numbering system on our gifts so that she was the only one who knew which gifts belonged to whom. It kept us from bothering (much) to "preview" our gifts in any way.
With five kids in the family, plus cousins, grandparents, and my dad it was easy for there to be quite a few boxes to wrap. You'd think that being the helper in this task would have made me hate wrapping. That was definitely the result from the summer mom paid me 5 cents a shirt to iron...scarred for life against ironing, but I digress...I still love to wrap, though I do have a terrible aversion to the stick-on bows and matching ribbon. Despite the large number of gifts I wrapped as a kid in Mom's little sweatshop, I still truly love to wrap!
Mom also taught me the art of arranging the gifts under the tree to look nice. I must admit, it was more interesting with our large family than it is with my little one. There's not much point right now anyway though since Addie likes to pick them up and shake them around.
"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. " ~ Burton Hillis
5 comments:
SWEAT SHOP ???? !!!!!
Well, ok.... you did wrap a few gifts but I am quite sure that's why you are so good at it now. Practice really does produce perfection!
I love Vickie's comment.
Your presents do always look so beautiful!
I share your love of gift wrapping Julie! I just started wrapping our stuff last night and I had so much fun. I really like it this year because we are staying here in IA so I got to buy wrapping paper I love (not just what my Mom has on hand) and I bought ribbon to go with it too. And this year is great because Lauren is definitely old enough to leave the presents alone and Liddy is to little to bother them.
My mother used the number system as well. It was a great system until one year when she lost the master list. We didn't know whose gift we were opening up on Christmas morning.
You are right, the gorgeous wrapping does make the gift better! That's why I have to MAKE SURE I get someone a good gift because the wrapping will always be below average. Pressure!
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