31 Days of Christmas – Day #11

A Box Full Of Kisses

It was 3 nights before Christmas and Daddy was very busy wrapping presents. 6-year old Alice stood at the table and asked Daddy for a box — a big box for a special gift. He hardly glanced at her through his busy eyes, but he did manage to pull a good-sized box from his wrapping pile.
“No,” Alice said, “that’s not big enough. I want the biggest box you have.”
“Why do you want that box?”
“Because it’s the biggest, and this is a special present.”
“Okay,” Daddy muttered, “I hope this is important.”
“Oh, it is,” Alice replied. “But now I need some paper.” Daddy reached for the least expensive roll, the tattered tissue used for stocking stuffer gifts.
“Uh-uh,” Alice insisted, “I need that pretty gold stuff.”
“Uh-uh,” Daddy replied. “That pretty gold stuff cost $8 a roll. The only reason we got it was to help the little boy next door with his school fund-raiser.”
“I don’t care,” Alice responded. “I want the nicest paper you have for this present. It’s important.”
“Well, who’s it for?” Daddy asked.
“It’s a surprise, a very important surprise,” she added.
Daddy gave in, muttering that he’d never paid $8 a roll for Christmas wrapping paper in his life.
Alice disappeared into her room for almost 3 hours. When she returned to Daddy’s table, she handed him her “biggest box” covered with wrinkled, wadded, and mashed gold paper held clumsily tight by enough Scotch tape to wrap the whole house!
“Open it now, Daddy. Open it now.”
“But it’s not Christmas for 3 more days, Alice. Why open it now?”
“Because I’m too excited to wait. It’s really special.”
Daddy tore away the expensive paper and opened the “biggest box.” It was empty. Absolutely empty!
“Alice,” Daddy said, “why did you use this big box and all this fancy paper to wrap a box with nothing in it?”
Alice said, “That box isn’t empty, Daddy. I spent all afternoon blowing kisses into it for you. That box is full of how much I love you!”