Heaven help an OC like me!

At this time of the year, our home looks like a warehouse. As you enter our front door you will find gifts to wrap, rolls of wrapping paper yet to be cut to size, containers-full of gift accents and trimmings, absurd amounts of glue sticks, double-sided tape, scotch tape and rolls of string and ribbons in happy colors.

Yup, my favorite season is just around the bend. And to welcome it I bring out my long Christmas list early. Christmas always excites me – no matter how bad the economy is nor how depressing the evening news may be – preparing Christmas gifts lifts my spirits.

In August, I had mapped out my action plan (buying, sourcing new finds, placing orders), by September the good I ordered were slowly being delivered to my home. By October everything was ready to be sorted and packed. I am hoping to have everything out and delivered by first week of December. I am already about 90 percent done.

Because I have a tendency to be OC (obsessive-Compulsive) when it comes to wrapping (because I enjoy it so much) I have always made it a point to do everything by myself. This stuff I ordered and bought piled up and before I knew it almost a fourth of our living room was covered with things to be wrapped.

I have never believed in mindlessly tossing a present into generic, store-bought gift bags.

Enthusiastic but overwhelmed by the looming task ahead I calculated the number of items I had to wrap festively vis-à-vis the number of days ‘till my target date of delivery. And even if I wrapped at marathon speed by mid-December I would only be half done. Only then did I realize that I had to delegate and trust someone else to help me. I am lucky to have four female helpers who have surprised me pleasantly by being such meticulous followers of instructions and neat gift wrappers.

My house girls were transformed overnight into efficient Christmas elves. With the TV tuned to their favorite soaps starting with Mulawin they start wrapping, at the same time following the twists and triumphs in the lives of Aguiluz and Alwina. They seem to enjoy the creative process. Now, I am less harassed. I have yet to stay up until the wee hours of the morning like I normally would, but at the rate things are going, I no longer see that happening.

I have developed a Christmas gift-wrapping system. I start out by gathering several big, storage bins and start "shopping" in a closet in my dressing room I have designated as my mini-department store. I pick out things throughout the year whenever we travel or when I find myself in the mall so by the time Christmas comes I have a home-based treasure trove at my disposal – ranging from something for a kikay six-year-old godchild to a charming token for a 63-year-old fashionable grandma, and pretty much everything else for the people in between.

If I find something I like or something I know someone I know will like I buy it and it goes straight to my special closet. I have organized my finds in storage boxes labeled with bold numbers. I also have a notebook where the contents of each numbered box are itemized. That way, all I really have to do is scan my notebook and I know exactly which box holds which item. It’s a pretty neat way of hoarding and gift-giving. It is convenient and time and cost efficient.

Once I have assigned would-be recipients to presents only then do I set out to buy for those on my list who still have none, remembering of course to get enough extras for those I may have forgotten or missed out. I sort everything before I put them in boxes, if they haven’t got any yet. I line boxes with gift tissue or japanese paper that I get from National Book Store or Wrap Shop. I even coordinate the color of the wrapper and tissue paper with the color of the item being wrapped. It may not really matter to the receiver but it matters to me. After the items are boxed and cushioned in tissue, only then can wrapping start. Each box is attached with labeled stickies and after wrapping my girls are instructed to carefully return the label to the designated box.

There are items that look better wrapped without a box and these are my favorite. Being able to wrap such presents creatively is a challenge. I have used everything from handkerchiefs, wallpaper scraps of luxe fabric, metallic tulle, vintage lace, sinamay, embossed and printed paper napkins, clear cellophane, corrugated board, brown paper bags festooned with trimmings, clear bowls, Lily’s Peanut Butter glasses, even printed rubbery drawer liners to tuck presents in. For trimmings I have used everything from huge, bright-colored faux flowers, beads, odds and ends like Juliana’s broken and/or mismatched clips and toys, bamboo sticks, wooden clothesline clips I dye with color (they can hold the gift card securely), mini-stuffed toys, dried leaves painted with color, clay accents, rocks, marbles, even old stockings (fishnet works well), kitschy knick-knacks. My favorite embellishments are scallop shells.

Every time Liza, our cook, bakes scallops I tell her to wash and keep the shells. I have quite a number of them at my disposal and I ended up attaching them to beribboned presents, either plain and festooned with beads and other festive odds and end or colored and sponged with metallic acrylic paint. I kinda like the way they look.

As far as gift-giving is concerned (and I do not mean this purely in the material sense) I always remember what a priest once said in his homily –"No one is so poor that he has nothing to give, no one too rich that he has nothing to receive."

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There will be another Introductory Centering Prayer retreat on November 12-14 at St. Joseph Marello Retreat House in Tagaytay. For inquiries, call 842-4030 or 843-8292. There will also be a two-day workshop in Santuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park on November 19 to 20, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Interested parties are welcome.