Wrapped Up In Wrapping

Want to see me sweat?

Then ask me to wrap a present.

I almost break out in hives when I even think about wrapping a present.  Shocking right?!  How can I have such attention to detail, and make things look so pretty when I can’t even wrap a pretty present?  But for me, it’s a challenge.

This is true.  It’s like I have a brain block with wrapping.

Major.  Wrapping.  Challenge.

I do ok with easy stuff like books or shirt size boxes.  But even then, half the time I don’t measure or cut the paper correctly, and I end up with seriously wrinkled corners.  There’s not enough ribbon in the world to cover up my flubs.  Throw in an odd shaped gift, or a cylinder shaped gift, and I’m totally stooged.  No. Can. Do.  It’s then that I call in the ole gift bags.  I am wrapped-challenged.

But this year, I serendipitously found  some great gift wrap at Michael’s that has a grid pattern printed on the back of the paper to make for easy measuring and precise cutting.

I realize this paper has been around for a while, but I haven’t ever paid attention to the lines on the back.  I was in such a panic or a hurry that I never “saw” the grid lines.  And too, it’s not like the label on the paper says “wrapping paper for the wrapped-challenged.”

Last evening, I poured myself a glass of wine and I set out to wrap presents.  I broke out into a hot flash, but I persevered and opened up a new roll of wrapping paper.  I unrolled it to start on my first present, and I finally focused in on the back of the paper.

Hello grid lines.

And my life changed at that moment.  I was a wrapping fool.  I tossed out the ribbon, cut some paper and made it look like ribbon.

I’ll be honest with you  This present that you see here, took me 10 minutes to wrap.  Certainly quite a bit longer than the contributor’s claim on the TODAY show that a present should only take 60 seconds to wrap.  Not sure what country she’s from, but obviously one that wraps considerably faster than “my country.”

Hey, I got it done, and in a 3 hour period, I wrapped 6 presents.  I figure I’ll do a little more tomorrow, and a little more the next day until I’m done.  Then, they will get ripped open in a nano-second.

But that is the joy of Christmas.

My advice to all that join me in the wrapped-challenged category – go with the wrapping paper with the grid on the back.  Certainly makes things a heck of a lot easier.

Happy wrapping.

You’re welcome.