At some point in my childhood, my dAd started his annual Christmas <del>W</del>rap. My memory is that we were driving back to Walla Walla after going shopping about an hour away in the Tri-Cities (you know because they have a real mall with the Gap <em>and</em> Old Navy. These things are <em>important</em> when you're 16).

Anyhow an hour in car with your dAd, little brother and sister is a lot for any teenager. I'd like to say that we were listening to the radio and joking around but I don't think that we were listening to the radio because I am not sure that we had a car with a working radio at that point in my life. So I'd guess that we were joking around, telling stories and comparing Christmas finds.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Christmas wrap or is that rap?"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Christmas wrap or is that rap?" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6529885431/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6529885431_0f18d42b36_b.jpg" alt="Christmas wrap or is that rap?" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

About a half an hour away from Walla Walla my dAd had his first go at a Christmas Rap. Yes. He was driving so he was not wrapping presents rather he was rapping. Kind of.

He was rapping the way a middle-aged white man would rap. A little bit of beat-box, a little too slowly and with questionable rhymes. He <em>loved</em> it.

We were mortified. But things like this are alright in the safety of your own car so then we encouraged him.<!--more-->

Turns out that we encouraged him more than we <em>ever</em> should have. My dAd is still rapping.

These days he only raps when prompted by the word wrap. So at my house we twist ourselves into knots trying to avoid the word: wrap. Mind you it's not that easy during the holidays.

His rap elicits plenty of groans. I mean he has been doing this every Christmas for<em> half</em> of my life. My poor sister. She's five years younger than me and I wonder if she can even remember a time before the "Christmas Rap."

The problem of course is that my dAd is a 15 year boy at heart and any kind of a response positive or negative encourages him. So he continues to rap. (Oh my poor mother!)

Last year I tried to have a little Christmas rap intervention. No luck. We did have a good conversation about current trends in rap and the possibility of  modernizing his rap. I explained that I was looking for him to increase the speed of the rap and decrease the amount of beat-boxing he was doing. I figured if nothing else, he would finish the rap a little faster and put an end to my mortification a little quicker. <em>Dads.</em>

Of course, this year I found a note in the box my parents sent me. And I<em> loved</em> it. In my dAd's square block hand writing, he'd written: Did you notice the nice Christmas <del>W</del>rap?

How could I not? How could I not.