I like wrapping presents. It's fun and exciting to decorate a package (sometimes by covering the loosely wrapped overtaped paper with stickers, if Ellie is helping) and to wonder how the recipient will react to the gift. I always have these grandiose plans to use some creative, quirky, Pinterest-inspired method of wrapping, but usually once I finally get around to it, it's almost time for the party, and we don't have all the supplies I need, so I throw the gift in a gift bag, top it with some tissue paper, and toss in a hastily signed card (if I remembered to buy one) before heading to the party. And it gets the job done. Because what really matters isn't what's on the outside; the paper will get ripped and thrown away, but the gift will be played with, worn, displayed, eaten, or cherished. Ellie got some pretty neat gifts at her party last weekend. Like the Clump-o-lump shark from my big brother, the Legos from a friend, the dress up clothes from grandparents. Some were wrapped modestly: pink paper tied with yarn, a bag with tissue paper. Others were more elaborate: three bags, tied with balloons, the contents of which could've fit in one bag... It was all about the presentation, something grandiose, all details that are lost on a four-year-old who just wants what's inside. Good intentions gone astray. Sometimes I feel like that four-year-old. I just want to get to the meat of it all. No more concerns about appearances, presentations. I think my brainheart is rebelling against the fact that I have to make my home look a certain way so I can try to sell it. I can't wrap my head around why I have to add clutter to one room just to declutter another. I don't understand why the placement of my stuff matters when it's all coming with me when I move out. Buyers shouldn't be concerned with how my house is decorated; they should care about what's behind the pictures on the walls. That's what they're really getting. But it's much easier to judge a house--and a present-- and a person-- based on the way they look without realizing that all we are looking at is a veneer.