Somehow over the years, I became the unofficial wrapper of the majority of the gifts we give as a couple or family. And I’m not very good at wrapping presents. There are members of my extended family that wrap presents with crisp corners, neat seams, flat and limited amounts of tape. The bows sit neatly on the packages.

Not mine. Mine look a lot like they got dropped several times on the way to the Christmas tree. The paper often has small tears in it as I struggle to make the packages as neat as possible.

The thing is, even though I complain about being the family wrapper, I actually like to do it. I put up a table in our bedroom, either put on junk TV or holiday music, and wrap, wrap, wrap. Sometimes I forget what is in a package so I have to peek before I put the tag on it. Sometimes I get frustrated or bored and put smaller things in envelopes that I put in the tree like decorations.

This weekend I plan to do the wrapping. Not sure if it will happen or not. Going into it, I am telling myself that this is the year I will cut the paper properly, make crisp corners, not rely on lots of tape to hold it all together, and will not have crinkled and bunched up tape on the seams. This is the year I will write the tag first, then wrap the present and put the tag right now. That’s the plan — I’ll let you know how it goes.