23 December 2012

Santa's Elves Don't Have These Problems

I've spent the day wrapping presents.  This is not something I'm good at so it's not necessarily something I *enjoy*.  I do enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I'm finished.  I do enjoy the image of the presents under the tree as well.  I just enjoy it more when Kevin does it.

I'm ahead of schedule this year, go figure.  Usually I am still wrapping on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  This isn't a sign of procrastination so much but a result of So Many Kids.

There are a few wrapping challenges this year.

Firstly, I bought a coat again my nephew's wishes for my niece.  Revel in it's wonder:
Fur, Grover colored purple, fuschia lining. So. Awesome. for a Six & A Half Year Old Girl
I had to find a nondescript box and use a wrapping paper that none of the other kids presents are wrapped in.  The tag will say "From Santa".  This will teach the nephew to tell me "No, because she'll ruin it in minutes."  As I told Swistle: "That is an invalid argument."

We bought light sabers for the boy littles.  The problem being that they came two-to-a-pack.  So, do we take them out and wrap a super-awkardly shaped toy?  Do we leave it in a box, have the boys open it together, and risk a disagreement over which one they get? 
This, I assume, is instant karma for buying the boys such a gift.
My brother-in-law's present is still somewhere in the snowy midwest on an UPS truck.  I had to print out a picture of what it's supposed to be with the caption of "Santa is running late but his elves will be dropping this off soon..."

We bought my nephew-in-law a gamefly subscription.  How does one wrap an internet subscription?  I printed the receipt, the Welcome Email, and a card reading "Two Months gamefly Subscription".  I'll have to wrap it in a small, flat box that fortunately I received a present in earlier this week.
The bonus awkward part of this is that my niece has NO FILTER WHATSOEVER and always loudly inappropriately comments upon presents. "He has this one!  It's too small! This isn't the right one!"  I am cringing in anticipation about this gift.

Along the "somewhere in the snowy midwest" portion of gift ordering, my mom's gift has yet to arrive.  It is promised to be here by Christmas day so I'm assuming it will be here tomorrow   In the meanwhile, the rest of the present sits unwrapped.

My little brother's gift barely fits in the box I have for it and I have no other boxes.  Also: I left his birthday gift home on Thanksgiving, unwrapped and forgotten.  Do I try to wrap them together in some yet-to-be-found larger box or wrap them separately?  Do I use birthday paper for one and Christmas for the other?  Wrap them separately in the same paper? different Christmas paper?  This is much too over-thought and difficult.  He's 49 years old, I doubt he cares. Although this is the brother that one year the presents are clearly bought on the fly and then another year, they're thought-out and expensive.  So, that makes this easier, yes?

Elves don't have these problems. At least not on television.

Merry Christmas Everyone!






2 comments:

Middle-aged Diva (Carol) said...

Santa's elves have NO problems at all! Yes, no one talks about finding the oddly shaped box!

BetteJo said...

I try not to worry too much about the wrapping - I know I obsess about it way more than the person opening it. And here I am at 1:45 Christmas morning taking a break - still having about half the presents to finish wrapping. Ugh!