Three days before Christmas, our basement flooded. Since the gifts were sorted into plastic bags instead of wrapped, no gifts were lost in the flood. Our bedroom furniture is probably ruined, but that’s okay since all we really need in our room is a mattress that floats during flood season. Two days before Christmas, I had to do eight loads of flood laundry, but all of the children were home and that made everything wonderful.

The day before Christmas, Doug did ALL of his shopping while I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. I used brown kraft paper and two kraft paper prints with glittery ribbons. Gift cards were in brown chipboard Birchbox boxes with a chalkboard sticker covering the Birchbox logo. I was very proud of my adherence to theme until I’d been wrapping for twelve hours with a belly full of caffeinated beverages instead of food. Then, I started using the kraft paper gift bags and tissue. This was followed quickly by the repurposing of an old birthday gift bag for an item that didn’t fit in anything else. After all of the stockings were stuffed, one small toy sat, unwrapped, mocking me.

I slapped a gift tag on the unwrapped toy and shoved it at Doug with a warning not to question me. He giggled.

I blinked my eyes and this happened: