Merry Christmas! I can’t believe it’s already here…seems like yesterday that we were in ‘stealth mode’ last Christmas trying to get the Santa gifts in place without the Little Princess catching us in the act. Year-before-last we almost got caught…we thought she was sound asleep, and even waited until midnight to make sure she was in a deep enough sleep not to hear any noise we might make. But as we were bringing in some of her larger Santa gifts, we heard little pitter-patter of feet at the top of the stairs. I went up to check out the situation, and found her ‘hiding’ near the guest room door, giggling at being caught. I asked her why she was out of bed – her response “I wanted to see if I could see Santa!” I reminded her that it was way past her bedtime, and Santa wouldn’t be able to stop by our house if she was awake. I got her all tucked back in bed, and went back downstairs to wait and see if she would venture out of her room again. About an hour later, I checked on her again, and this time, thankfully, she was sound asleep.

Last year I didn’t want to take any chances – after we put her to bed, we decided we should all go to bed early, just to give Santa plenty of time for his visit, especially since he had so many boys and girls to visit that night. I set my alarm for 3:00 a.m. and decided not to wake up my poor hubby to help relocate the gifts from the shed to the house. Turned out I didn’t have to do a ‘middle of the night’ stealth mode, because the next morning we had to go wake up the Little Princess before the morning was gone – she slept in past 9:30, and my hubby and I had already been up for hours! Murphy’s Law…

But this year I had a feeling she might be up early, so we wanted to make sure that we got everything taken care of during the night, and my hubby made me promise that this time I would wake him up so he could help. This year, the Little Princess surprised us – she put herself to bed early, because she wanted to make sure she was fast asleep so Santa could stop by…I had been cleaning up the kitchen and went into the living room to see if I might be able to coax her into going to bed a little early, but she had already gone upstairs. I went up to see what she was up to, and found her ‘hiding’ under her covers.

Me: “What are you doing?”

Savannah: “I wanted to hurry up and go to sleep so Santa can hurry up and get here!”

Me: “Oh, that’s a great idea! Why don’t we get you tucked in and read a bedtime story so you can get to sleep soon, and then Santa can stop by.”

Savannah: “OK, but I don’t want a bedtime story, I just want Santa to get here! Maybe you and Dada should go to bed, too, so Santa will see that we’re all sleeping and he can come over.”

Me (laughing): “OK, I have a few things to take care of, but I’ll round up Dada and we’ll get to sleep soon, too. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can get a picture of Santa when he’s here…but I’ll have to be really quiet, and you have to definitely be asleep, because he won’t stop by if you’re not sleeping.”

Savannah: “If you were disguised as a kid, you probably won’t be able to get a picture of Santa, because he’ll think a kid’s still awake in our house!”

Me: “You’re probably right about that I better not disguise myself as a kid – we need to make sure all the kids of the house are sleeping so Santa can come on by!”

Savannah: “Make sure you leave milk and cookies for him, I’m sure he will like that. I got out the cup and plate for him.”

Me: “OK, will do – thanks for getting the Santa cup and plate out, I’ll be sure to leave him cookies and milk.”

Savannah: “Oh, and don’t forget to sprinkle the reindeer food outside – I didn’t do it because I didn’t want to have to put a coat and shoes on, so you can do it.”

Me: “You got it, milk and cookies for Santa, reindeer food for the reindeer…anything else?”

Savannah: “No, that should take care of it. But hurry up, we don’t want Santa to miss our house!”

I couldn’t believe it – the last two years it was tough getting her to fall asleep, and even tougher making sure she stayed in her room. This was going to be great, no middle-of-the-night scurrying to make sure everything was ready for her Magical Christmas Morning. We waited for about an hour, then I quietly peeked in on her. Sound asleep. Unbelievable! Then the fun began – pulling the gifts from various hiding places and placing them under the tree. Dada ate the cookies and I drank the milk, and Santa even left a ‘thank you’ note. We were able to get to sleep ourselves at a decent hour, with no middle-of-the night alarm!

Luckily we got everything done and in place, because this year she got up at the same time as we did, which is ‘early’ for her. She’s proud of herself for being a good girl this past year, and that Santa was kind to her. She is also very happy that Mama and Dada made the “Nice” list this year, too, because Santa didn’t forget us, either! It was a running joke between my hubby and I as we opened our ‘Santa’ gifts for each other – we had decided not to exchange gifts this year since we, like everyone else, have had to tighten our budget. But we got each other ‘useful’ gifts to be ‘from Santa’ – and as we each opened the things the other got for us, we kept saying “Santa brings you what you need.” It was a great morning enjoyed by all! 🙂

Enjoy this wonderful day with family and friends, give thanks for this joyous season and have a Very Merry Christmas from our house to yours! Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Whatever you celebrate this time of year – Best Wishes to all!

7 Comments

  1. I love your story and I remember sneaking around doing the very same things. We’d be at the presents by 7 am. It’s funny now because nobody even woke up until 10:30 this morning and we didn’t even get to the presents until 12:30pm. Merry Christmas, Stacy!

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  2. Thanks Elizabeth! LOL! So you guys got to sleep in Christmas morning…cool! 😉 Merry Christmas!

  3. I definitely love how serious she is about it all, too – really brings back warm memories of Christmas as a child! 😉

    Glad you had a wonderful Christmas, too! 😀

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