Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for December 20, 2019

After all these years of escapades Janis, there’s only so many ways Arlo can proceed…

I just knew he’d say that.

It’s easier to just wrap it and put it under the tree. Let them guess but don’t touch.

My wife loved to shake and guess what was in her wrapped gifts and she got too good at it. So I sabotaged her. I would wrap a fake package and give her the real one late. I would sometimes put a cotton ball with perfume and a half filled water bottle in a small appliance or a small tin can with marbles in with a blouse, etc. > :-} (evil grin)

There is a risqué comment that could be made in response to panel 4 but as a Christmas gift to the creator (No not that Creator! JJ!) I’ll stick with the gifting and hiding meaning. :o)

‘I knew you were thinking that!’

old habits are hard to break!

like deja vu all over again

This has been a long time disagreement in my house, and it all has to do with how my wife and I were brought up differently. My mom used to wrap and put most of the gifts under our (alluminum) Christmas tree so that (as she said) we could enjoy looking at them, and anticipating them. Then for Christmas morning, she would put the rest of the presents under the tree, and fill our stockings. My wife’s mom, on the other hand, put nothing out until Christmas Eve, then she put it ALL out for Christmas morning. So – we’ll never agree. Now we just compromise with each other.

What? Do they give each other a Green Coffee cup each Christmas?

I know some folks who just put the name of the recipient in black marker along the smile line of the Amazon box. Woo frikin’ hoo.

If it’s Thursday, it must be time for snuggles.

I hate spoiling surprises. I have zero interest in peeking at gifts.

I can remember when my Grandmother was in her 90s and had lots of saved Xmas wrapping paper and far far to many grandkids, and great grandkids and even a great great grandkid to buy or make xmas presents for so she gave us grandkids(all 34 of us) each a gift wrapped box of kleenix-

When the children were younger, after they went to sleep Christmas Eve, Mrs. UFO and I would quietly set their bedside clocks back a few hours and ensure the window blinds were closed so we could get some sleep.

Why do I think the predictability conversation that Arlo doesn’t want to have has nothing to do with where presents are hidden.