The Gift That Doesn't Keep on Giving

Do you see it?  Way in the back?  Beyond the spare bedding for overnight guests....past the plastic containers that stack perfectly with our minimal household belongings.  It's the rolls of Christmas wrapping paper.  About ten of them.  And they've been right there since we moved in more than three years ago.  And, now that I'm thinking about it, they were in our basement back at our earlier house.  Untouched.  Used minimally.  Just sitting there. 

We haven't bought Christmas wrapping paper in years.  Many, many years.  Because we don't typically give gifts.  To others nor to each other.  Sometimes we do.  But not as a standard.  We stopped maybe five years ago because of the cost.  And because most people (including us) don't actually need anything.  How's that for practicality and being over analytical.  Yeah, yeah I know.....Christmas is not quite the right time for over-thinking the process. It's the season for giving and taking and exchanging and holiday cheer and blah blah blah.  And we still do Christmas parties and fun things....it's just that the gifts are no longer a part of our traditions.  Occasionally we still give each other one or two things.  We (well, I'd better just speak for myself....) decided that it makes no sense to stand in the middle of a Target store looking, staring, searching out something that we really don't need -- only to see it in the pile headed to Goodwill six months later.

We'd rather spend our money on big trips or things for the house.  And right now we're considering putting in new hardwoods or flooring of some sort.  And I'd really like a refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom instead of the space inefficient side-by-side that we have.  Plus, our anniversary is in the earlier part of December.  And we're leaving on the 28th for a week's vacation in New York state.  So the giving of gifts tends to fall lower on the priority list. 

And we do miss it sometimes.  The pile of things under the tree.  The scissors, the tape, the measuring, the bows, the name tags on the packages.  The waking up early on Christmas morning to see if Santa has been down the chimney (that we don't have) during the night.  That's all fun and games sometimes.  But honest to god, it has taken so much pressure off of the holiday season.  No financial pressure.  No time constraints.  No having to put on your thinking cap and come up with some gift idea.  So for now, the rolls of wrapping paper will stay in the back of our storage unit right where they've been for several years.  Untouched.  Unused. 

Merry Christmas.