Saturday, December 22, 2012

Wrap it Up!

I can’t believe I’m actually finished prepping for Christmas this year and with days to spare.  I mean granted we’re not celebrating Christmas until the 29th here because of my husband’s work schedule but I feel most accomplished today.

The kids and I went for a long walk early this afternoon, well not a long walk in terms of distance but when you are walking with a 2 year old and 3 year old it tends to slow things down a bit and what would normally take about 15 minutes to walk almost took 2 hours.   It was very fun to watch my daughter go to each door and deliver the neighbors Christmas cards.  Watching a child take such joy in sharing and giving is about one of the most satisfying experiences of this entire holiday season craziness.

The last chore I had to finish up with was wrapping gifts.  This is probably my least favorite job out of the festivities.  Wrapping gifts is such a strange idea.  I understand it adds to the excitement of the present but truthfully it seems ridiculous.  You spend a bunch of money on paper, bows, tape and string that just gets ripped up and tossed in the garbage.  Not to mention the billion hours it takes to try to figure out how to wrap each gift.  I’m not making it up when I say that a friend of mine on Facebook was literally sending out a plea to all the parents out there on exactly HOW you wrap up Hot Wheels cars packages.  I was ever so grateful with this post because there was in fact a really helpful answer.  One of the people who replied said that you wrap two of them together face to face.  There wasn’t an answer though for the Littlest Pet Shop toy packages that are my daughter’s request from Santa.  Trust me if you can hold off on getting your kid one of these buggers I’d avoid it at all costs.  I must have had to re-wrap it at least 10 times.  I’m not even tempting fate by putting the gifts under the tree until at least Christmas Eve, I don’t think the kids could handle themselves.

Wrapping is a very time consuming activity in normal situations but when it comes to trying to wrap them with kids in the house it becomes a sporting event.  I know that most people would suggest that I wrap these gifts at night to save myself some hassle.  I’ve actually been attempting to do so and that’s why I haven’t finished it until today.  Most of my shopping was done over a week ago and I have had good intentions to sit down every night and do all the wrapping.  My trouble is by 9:00pm (just after I put my kids to bed) I’m done.  I don’t have any fuel left in the tank.  If I’m not asleep by 9:30pm these days then I know that the morning won’t be pleasant.   I did get a few gifts wrapped one evening and half a bottle of wine consumed which resulted in a hangover (I’m very lightweight when it comes to my alcohol intake) and two presents needing to be re-wrapped.  It just doesn’t seem worth the pain. 

Today I figured I would attempt on getting the rest of the gifts done.  By taking the kids for a walk this afternoon I assumed that I could get a little bit of a reprieve from them as they would be a bit worn down.  I was wrong.  They were still as curious as to what I was up to.  They were still trying every way possible to drive me crazy.  I’ve decided that the only thing worse than wrapping gifts is trying to wrap them while keeping two curious toddlers at bay.   I didn’t even have any wine to smooth over the process.  I believe that drinking wine is never a good idea in the day when the kids are running full tilt, I feel like I have to treat my life like a potential on-call ambulance driver just in case they break their bones or worse.  People reading this might think I’m paranoid, that is unless they know my children.

None-the-less after several bribes with Christmas treats, screaming fits (on my part), drinks of milk, trips to the potty and a new Dora movie the deed was done.  I can actually say that I’m finished all the hard work of the season and plan on sitting back and having a Bailey’s and coffee or two…well as soon as my hubby returns from work so I know we have a designated emergency services driver!

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