Ribbons & Bows

When I was a kid there was a gift wrapping counter in the basement of every department store. The women staffing this area would admire whatever gift you had purchased and ask after the occasion the package belonged to. Was this a baby shower gift? Somebody's birthday? Something from the wedding registries, perhaps?

In an age of gift bags and slapdashery it was hard to describe the full effect of careful wrapping. The cooing that fluttered around a room at the sight these packages. I was feeling nostalgic for gift wrapping, I suppose, as N prepared for her best friend's birthday party last weekend. I seized the occasion as a teachable moment to school my kid on how you neatly wrap presents. 

N sighed and rolled her eyes as we smoothed out the wrinkles of the paper so the edges fit together just so. She slumped and muttered as she placed each piece scotch tape on the underside of the seams. 

The complaining got so thick that I broke into giggles at one point. N snapped her chin up from her chest.  She glared at me and begged:

          "What?"

"Oh, honey, I was just remembering the time Grandma Mel taught me this same thing." 


          "And?" 

"And I was about as excited about learning to wrap a nice present as you feel right now."

Then I older. I hosted bridal showers, my friends had babies, or we wandered over to console someone who was sick or sad.  My hands weren't empty as I arrived to those occasions. Rightfully so, I was careful with the edges and seams.

N finished up her packaging job. She decorated the gift with ribbons and bows. Delivered it to the birthday girl who, as if on cue, visibly swooned.