(Un)Wrap the Holidays

You know those stories you don't tell your kids because you don't want them to get any ideas? This is one of those sotries. So, shhhh ... don't tell Mila.

I say "don't tell Mila" and not Alexis because I only need to worry about the little one getting bad ideas. The big one still can't break the rules without breaking into a sweat so she could never. Besides, she's really very terrible at unwrapping and unboxing so there is NO chance.

That's why the story came to mind, by the way. Alexis was helping me organize the first wave of Christmas Crazy boxes when it quickly became VERY obvious that she could never be a professional unboxer. She can't pull apart the tape on Amazon boxes, which huh? How? It's the easiest tape in the world to destroy. It's as if Amazon has spent money on pulling together the data to find tape that will last exactly long enough to get to your house. The stuff disintegrates shortly thereafter. And yet, Alexis can't open those boxes.

But I can. OH, I CAN. I could also open pretty much any box that my mom ever wrapped. The woman had religious objections to using more than a couple of pieces of tape on a gift. If it wasn't moral objections, then she was just suuuuuuuuper frugal. Seriously, she could wrap an entire package and only use two small scraps of tape.

It was sort of magical, especially because I knew how to carefully peel that tape off of most wrapping paper, slide the gift out, open it, and then reassemble the whole thing. Without detection. As in, I knew what I was getting for Christmas every single year well before the holiday because I would just trounce out to the tree some evening, open all of my gifts, and then seal them back up before anyone could find me.

Don't get any ideas, Mila. Not only do I super love using a lot of tape, I'm onto your tricks.