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12/18/2003: "Pretty Paper"

I spent an hour or so this afternoon wrapping gifts. I tried to get in the spirit of it, playing my most ecclesiastical recording of Christmas music, but my enthusiasm flagged well before I was finished. I am a pretty good craftsman with paper, all that time in the studio was not spent in vain, but it is a peculiarly pointless exercise. The best-wrapped gift at Christmas is like the handsomest Tom turkey on the day before Thanksgiving. I am such a Calvinist that I try to be as thrifty as possible in the use of the paper, and to dole out the space in the boxes for mailing as rationally as possible. I fill up the odd cracks with various pieces of plush that I get at Rummage for free. Very efficient, and no less efficient at sucking the last bit of fun out of a trying annual activity. Next I have to do some cards.