Santa at Seven

When I put Cameron to bed on Christmas Eve, I told him that our rule is that we don't get up until 7am on Christmas.  This was the rule when I was growing up and at the time I thought it was terribly unfair.  7am!!!  How in the world were we supposed to wait until SEVEN to see if Santa came?!?!  One year, when my sister Stephanie and I shared a room, we woke up well before 7am.  We stood on one side of our bedroom and watched the minutes tick by on the clock.  Each time one minute passed, we took one step towards the door until -- FINALLY! -- the clock read seven and we burst out of the bedroom to wake our lazy parents.

Now that I'm a grown-up, the 7am rule seems quite logical to me. Cameron, it turns out, felt differently about it.  I showed him the clock in his room.  "If you wake up," I told him, "look at this clock before you come wake me up.  You can only wake me up if the first number say 7."

At 2:38am, I woke to see Cameron standing next to me with a huge smile on his face.  "It's seven, Mommy!"

"No, Cameron.  It is 2 in the morning.  Go back to bed."

At 4:30am, he was back and I again sent him back to bed.  At 5:15am, when he insisted that his clock said it was 7am, I told him not to come out of his room until I came and got him.

When, at 7am exactly, I went to get him, he showed me his clock.  "See?" he said.  "I told you!  Every time I woke up, the clock said it was 7!"  It's one of those fancy clocks that also has a thermostat on it and, as it turns out, the temperature was 70 degrees.

Despite my exhaustion, it was a lovely Christmas.  Santa came through for each of the boys, somehow intuiting exactly which Lego set Cameron hoped to receive.  This was his face when he tore of the wrapping paper and saw Lego Space Police Freeze Ray Frenzy.

And Matthew, of course, received his beloved Knuffle Bunny.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your holidays as well!  I'm off to build a Lego set!