The gift of giving

I love presents. Sure, I like receiving gifts, especially when I'm not expecting them, but that just doesn't really ever happen, so I'm talking about the other direction. I l-o-v-e to spend time choosing the perfect gift, then hoarding it with the other presents I have carefully selected for other people in my present closet.



1. my box of packaging materials;
2.-3. my present closet which has extended out onto...
4. the guest bed

(that's Georgie climbing into that box)
I purchase gift wrap, ribbon, tissue paper, gift boxes, bags, bows, tags, and cards online and in stores throughout the year. Then, when it is somewhere near time to give presents I go into the closet and pull out the gifts, lump them into piles by recipient, then rebox everything and put it back in the closet. A little closer to the gift-giving time and I pull the gifts back out and carefully select one gift to wrap. I browse through all the various wrapping materials and smile as I place the gift in its perfect packaging. :}

What I don't care for is when my sister-in-law chastises me for putting too much tape on my packages to my niece (who has little function in her left hand so it's hard for her to open packages) so the next year I use gift bags instead and my S-I-L quips, "Lots of bags this year, Poppy. Sometimes I don't have a lot of time to wrap up my presents either." Or, "It's so much easier to just throw things into bags, isn't it?" Or, "I buy stuff from Oriental Trading because it's cheap, too!" OR, when she ROLLS HER EYES at me when I give my niece another book or a stuffed teddy bear (which is what my niece asks me for when Auntie Poppy takes her out for the day). This makes me unhappy. But, instead of ruining the day by reminding my S-I-L about what she said to me the previous year about the tape and how I was actually being considerate to my niece with the bags and the books and the bears, I bite my tongue and walk away.

Then, when I visit my mom or my friend K and see that the gifts I gave them are sprinkled throughout their homes and hear the stories of when they received their gifts in the mail and couldn't wait to use them ...


one of my gifts to K for her 35th birthday
... I smile to myself and realize that all my effort is appreciated and perhaps actually worth it. :)


"I love it when Mommy smiles!"