Round 8: Wrapping Paper

Okay, before you all roll your eyes again that I will be gracing you all (yes, all three of you) with a blog post on the single topic of wrapping paper, I need to break in with a special report: I am SO grateful that I did not die last night on my way home from my parents' house, or this morning on my way to work. And I very easily could have in that craziness of a blizzard. Never have I been so grateful for my apartment than I was last night. I was safe, I was warm, and even though I could hear the crazy wind and snow outside, it didn't bother me. Well, until I had to get up and drive this morning, but whatever.
And now back to your regularly scheduled dorkiness.
Wrapping paper is what makes the world happy.
Well, I don't know about that, but it certainly makes ME happy! Anytime anything is wrapped in special paper that serves no other purpose but to cover a gift and make you more excited about the occasion the gift is for certainly SHOULD make someone happy! And Christmas wrapping paper is the ULTIMATE wrapping paper, thus delivering ULTIMATE happiness. And yeah, I'm having too much fun with the caps lock. Wrapping paper has that effect on me.
{Seriously, though, look at this beautiful-ness! Aren't you smiling???}
Let me spin a little story for you. Growing up, we had the regular wrapping paper that you could pick up at any store. We used a lot of it, mostly because we were terrible at wrapping presents and used way too much, but we were also really good at using the odd scraps. Anyway, we knew all of the paper we had, and we had our favorite rolls. Grandma's presents always came in much nicer paper, much fancier, and we used to save it for when we could use it again next year. But the best, and I mean BEST, wrapping paper of all was the paper that Santa wrapped his presents in. It was something none of us had ever seen every year, obviously, since Santa wraps his presents at the North Pole and they have their own AMAZING stash of wrapping paper, (I'll post on Santa later...look for it). But it was always so exciting for me to see that new paper, that special Santa paper that was only used for his presents. Maybe that's just super dorkiness on my part, but that was really special for me.

{Sighhhh, what a beautiful mess.}
Some people are really talented when it comes to wrapping paper. My aunt Karen is one of them. Her presents are works of art. It's almost a shame to open them. Almost. I, on the other hand, have very little skill. Well, that's not true. I have very little artistry when it comes to wrapping. I'm quick and efficient (okay sometimes I use too much still, so what?). My presents are very rarely anything awe-inspiring, but the paper is cool. =){Seriously, look at this TOTALLY AWESOME paper! I want presents like this!}
Basically, one of my favorite things is Christmas Eve, when we've finally brought down the presents (more about traditions later, stay tuned) and assembled them under the tree, and then step back and look at all of those presents wrapped in that amazing paper underneath our tree with the lights reflecting off of it. So stinkin' cool.{Okay, this is a touch ridiculous, but LOOK at the variety! Who wouldn't be happy with this???}
And the wrapping paper is a MAJOR part of that awesomeness!
And this has nothing to do with the fact that I just collected 35 rolls of wrapping paper for a community Christmas thingy and was in charge of all of the wrapping volunteers, who wrapped 264ish presents in an hour and a half. Nothing at all.