you know it’s the holidays when…

a commercial for scotch tape causes you to burst into tears.

i blame lack of sleep and hormones (i actually blame hormones for just about everything these days). plus it’s about this time every year when my holiday nostalgia kicks into full gear. a dangerous combination friends.

so here’s what happened. this past saturday i was making waffles for kelsey and her friends. the other girls weren’t up yet, so it was just kelsey and me in the kitchen watching trisha yearwood’s new show on food network. one of the commercials was for a fancy new hands-free, pop up tape dispenser by 3M which boasted pre-cut strips of tape to ‘make gift wrapping fun and easy!’

kelsey looked at me and said, “hey momma you need to get one of those.” to which I replied, “yeah, but then i wouldn’t have you to pull off tape strips for me. and where’s the fun in that??”

next thing you know, i’m standing over the waffle maker weeping. seems that somehow, through the magic of hormones and nostalgia, i had been transported back to 1976 and was sitting on the floor in my parents’ living room helping my mom wrap christmas presents.

***warning!! nostalgia alert!!***

one of my favorite things as a kid was to help my mom wrap christmas presents. but before we could get started though, mom had to go find ‘the good scissors’ and then dig around in the the junk drawer/craft box for the scotch tape. then she’d gather up the rolls of wrapping paper and the big bag of bows we got from TG&Y and we’d set up shop in the middle of the living room floor. i’d watch as she placed a box (or whatever) on the rolled out paper and make sure that there was the same amount of paper on both sides.  then i’d watch in fascination at how she could glide the scissors along the paper without even ‘cutting’.

once she got the paper cut then it came time to fold it up around the sides to the top.  then she’d put her hand out for a piece of tape.  this was my job of course (a job i took very seriously i might add) so i’d ask her, “do you need a big piece or a little piece?” 

after she got the paper taped on the top, then she’d direct her attention to the ends which she perfectly folded into boxed edges. once again, my job, more tape. after the present was wrapped, she’d attach a coordinating color of ribbon.  i remember as a very little girl we used the wide flat ribbon which mom would artistically (i thought) wrap diagonally around the package.  it was also my job to peel the backing from the bows (which she also let me do).  but years later, we discovered curling ribbon, oh snap!, mom got super fancy with making all sorts of curly bows.  and in lieu of taping, i put my finger on the bow so she could tie it onto the package.

i was a huge help in case you were wondering.

fast forward twenty years and this same scenario has played out in my own home with own my daughter many times. and yes, the apple does not fall from the tree because i am just as persnickety about lining up the box just so (thank you gridded wrapping paper!!) and making perfect folds on the ends.

i might add here that i’ve also taken the liberty of of not putting curling ribbon on our packages because my cat likes to eat it and then barfs of giant, disgusting hairballs all over the house.

but i suppose that’s another blog post for another day.

anyway, i’ve been thinking about this for the past couple of days…why a stupid tape commercial could stir up so much emotion.  funny thing is that i doubt very seriously if my mom was actively trying to create a special memory. pretty sure she wasn’t pre-planning thinking, ‘ok…how can i make this a special memory?’ she was probably just as tired and strung-out i am during the holidays so she was just doing what she needed to do.  but that was ok because she let me do it right along with her. we were together. and that’s the special part.

and that’s the thing worth remembering.

thank you mom. love, kelly