Treasure the Christmases now

Each time I celebrate Christmas with my little ones, I try to cherish it as much as possible.

I know all to well that before I even know what happened they will be teenagers rolling their eyes at me and telling me I embarrass them or how uncool I am.

But for now, I can honestly just look at them and smile at how a simple toy, book or piece of candy can bring a big smile to their faces.

This year was no different. My boys, Matthew, 7, and John, 4, spent Christmas Eve day asking me when Santa was going to arrive, while they helped me bake and frost sugar cookies for Santa. They also asked what Santa’s reindeer liked to eat and I reminded them that we had already bought carrots for the reindeer.

With cookies complete and a couple of Christmas movies watched, including the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “It’s Christmas Again Charlie Brown,” it was finally time to get them to bed. This happened after we set out two sugar cookies for Santa and despite John’s insisting each reindeer needed a carrot we left two for the reindeer to share. We explained that if the reindeer ate too much they wouldn’t be able to fly very well.

The kids seemed to go to bed fairly easy. I, on the other hand, was a little bit excited about what the next day would bring and slept lightly. I kept listening for Santa and waiting for the boys to wake up and look around for their presents.

Surprisingly though, my husband and I were the first ones to wake up. We thought for sure we would have caught them digging stuff out of their stockings and tearing into the gifts left for them. Nope. We were the first ones up and to me that was a Christmas miracle in itself.

When the kids finally woke up, it was almost like they had forgot it was Christmas.

Matthew just sat on the couch and my husband and I didn’t say a thing to sleepy Matthew. I guess we just wanted to see how long it would take before he realized Santa had come.

Then, he said “Where are the stockings? Mine and John’s are missing.”

He noticed the stocking were no longer hung by the fireplace.

I said, “Maybe you should look around the room and see where they are.”

The stockings had been moved; and now sat on the floor in front of the boys’ toys so they would know which ones were theirs. That clever Santa.

“Who moved them?” he asked.

“Who do you think moved them?” I replied.

He sat their for a bit. Looked around the room and then a big smile took over his face as the realization set it.

“SANTA!!” he shouted.

Just then, John came in the room rubbing sleep from his eyes and wondering why Matthew was so excited.

Matthew told John Santa had come and then they were both near the Christmas tree looking at the gifts Santa left them. John went straight for the new garbage truck transformer truck he asked Santa for, while Matthew took his time taking out each and every piece of candy or stocking stuffer from his stocking.

After John was done looking at his truck, he walked over and dumped the entire contents of his stocking onto the ground.

He then started moving things around with his hands while looking at it all.

Matthew then moved onto his big gift from Santa an Imaginex Batman toy. They both played with their toys for a while until John started dragging out the wrapped presents by the tree that he wanted to open.

That’s when we decided to have Christmas pancakes for breakfast before we opened everything.

Awe. Yes. It was a Christmas morning to remember and I got the video and photos to prove it.

I look forward to many more of these Christmases before I am considered old and embarrassing to my kids.