The Gift Wrapper

Last updated on: January 1, 2023 at 7:31 am by Mark Williams

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The Gift Wrapper 2023-01-01T07:31:32-07:00 Mark Williams

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May be an image of indoor

Some people say…

Some people say I am a gift-wrapping savant. “Ahead of your time” they sometimes say. “Your techniques boggle the common man’s mind” they go on. On rare occasions I sometimes get “Did you have no arms or legs when you wrapped that?”

It’s hard to tell from this picture these are all the same gifts, don’t you think? It’s like each one has its own life flow, its one destiny, its own pronoun.

You too, can do this well.

All you need…

All you need is some wrapping paper you’ve had for the last five Christmas,’ a wee dram of the stuff that makes all things warm, and a ‘Geez, this is taking a long time/don’t give a rip’ attitude. Soon, you too can wrap presents like the pros. One cut along the roll, no measuring, tape is our friend, and no trimming! All the wrapping paper, no matter how edgy or long, or ripped it is, gets to live out its destiny!

It never makes sense to me, nice gift wrapping. I guess it’s a sign you care about a person, you’re willing to spend twenty minutes wrapping their present, putting bows on, folding the edge of the paper back and taping it down so it’s a smooth crease. Then finding those package Christmas tags where you buy a half dozen for the price of a radio for your car and tie those on. Only to have the whole package shredded in less than thirty seconds by the giftee. I remember my mother and father saving the wrapping paper. A habit they got in to during the depression and World War II and never turning back. But by the time I was born, they were still doing it, folding it up in a neat tuck tuck fold routine only to find its way to the trash by the end of the night.

I think God likes my wrapping. I think on baby Jesus’ birthday, and in prepping for the tradition of exchanging presents, He likes the idea of what I do. don’t get me wrong, He likes how you wrap presents too. With the tissue paper and the added noise makers woven into the bow, an added gift for the New Year’s Eve habit of staying up late and going out front at midnight and waking the rest of us up with the beating of pans-which has been replaced with fireworks and mortar rounds purchased at the neighborhood grocery store.

Not only…

Not only do we have to wrap presents, sometimes, as in my case, I am widowed and don’t have any real help for the present wrapping task and the dogs have no thumbs so they can’t help-AT ALL, we also have the demand of making something for the community Christmas Eve dinner. I like cooking, I like it a lot, but sometimes, ordering platters of Mexican food and picking it up and paper plates as well, just makes life enjoyable, you know? Baby Jesus LOVES Mexican food. So, to celebrate his birthday with it, I think, makes it wonderful even more.

So, the new year is here, whether we want it or not. Life is a present and we have been given this life by the God of the Universe who loves us unto death. Enjoy.

About – Inside Our Gooey Minds (patheos.com)

www.markjwilliams.com

About Mark Williams

Mark Williams spent the first twenty-one years of his career as a Special Agent for the Organized Crime Division of the State Attorney General’s Office. As part of his duties, he investigated organized crime, homicides, and fraud cases submitted by other agencies to that office. He has traveled across the United States as an instructor for law enforcement in various capacities. After he retired, he became a high school English teacher at an inner-city school in central Phoenix where he is the fourth generation in his family to live in the valley. You can read more about the author here.

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