Boxing Day

The delivery trucks rumble back to their garages leaving stacks of Christmas packages on the door step. Packages from Uncle Tim, granny, mom and dad, well wishers and even the Jelly of the Month Club offering from my employer. All come well wrapped in various size boxes – many of which have been shipped through a family business, lovingly packed by my brother-in-law, a master in the art of contents protection. Whatever is inside a box he packs isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, making open and disposing of the container quite a challenge.

So begins Boxing Day for me – the day during the Christmas holiday I dread most, even more than wrapping paper day.

With my cold steel “Boarding Pass” (AKA box cutter) in hand I blithely slash through tape developed by NASA for securing payloads in the space shuttle bay, cardboard made from extraordinarily tough tropical hardwoods, and bullet proof shrink wrap developed by the military for gift wrapping armored personnel carriers. The mound of cardboard grows faster than the pool of blood from that last masterful stroke (always cut away from yourself!!).

Several blades and a severed digit later and my roll-roll is now packed to the brim with cardboard sheets. Forget the rest of the garbage it is Boxing Day. I am tempted to recycle some of the cardboard over my neighbor’s wall, but refrain from releasing free range pulp products into the neighbor’s yard in the spirit of the season. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for the garbage guy…

Happy Boxing Day to you all!!