Remember when I wrote about how gift wrapping is like a bloodsport to me?

I wasn’t exaggerating.

For weeks now I’ve been trying to decide what the Christmas theme would be this year. I’ve done silver and gold, blue, green and blue, etc. Last year it was red and white, and I really loved that theme. I still have some of that paper and would use it again-this almost never happens to me. Once a new Christmas season comes along, I have no desire to revisit last year’s theme. Not so this year. But could I bare to do 2 years in a row with the same color scheme?

Needless to say this has caused endless teasing from Adam, who feels compelled to remind me daily that I am the only person who remembers what wrapping paper I used last year. So what if he’s right? It doesn’t make it any less important to me. I cannot officially get excited about Christmas until I have chosen The Paper. I’ve made at least 2 trips each to The Container Store and Target in search of my color scheme. And this weekend I finally made my choice: red and green. Seems obvious, right? It’s almost too obvious for me. But there are great subtleties involved in which red and green paper I chose. The red had to be bright, and the green couldn’t be too dark. Some should be foil, some should have a white background, some should have writing. Nothing too cartoony. This provides texture and, as my mother would say, “eleganza” when all those gifts are under the tree (someday I will write about all the words my family likes to make up).

Now that the paper is done, I can start obsessing over the holiday cards.