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Wow. It’s 5:30pm (EST) on Christmas Eve. Already. But it still took forever. Christmas Eve is the longest day of the year. The hardest, longest night segment to get through is the hours from 9pm until 8am. Dad says he won’t let us open presents and have him awake until noon, but we know (and I think he does) that at 8am we’re marching into Mom and Dad’s room and waking them up. Then we can start that long process of getting downstairs. Seriously, it takes FOREVER to even get downstairs. First, we have to talk loud enough in the parent’s room and jump on their bed long enough for them to wake up. That usually doesn’t take long. Then, we struggle through like 20 verses of scriptures on the Christmas story. When that’s over, we generally grab garbage bags and scissors, Rachel gets her doll, and we all line up, one behind the other, in front of the stairs. We organize so we’re lined up youngest to oldest, youngest in front.  Due to me, that may not be shortest to tallest next year. (I’m not insulting myself, but that comment right there tells you it’s Camryn posting.) Then, Dad walks very incredibly slowly downstairs, and comes back up s-l-o-w-l-y and tries for a while to convince us that Santa didn’t come. I don’t know what he’ll use as proof this year, because last year he took pictures of the mantel where our EMPTY stockings hang and tried to use that. Unfortunately, the two oldest children (Allie and me) knew that Santa ALWAYS puts our stockings on the ground after he fills them to make it easier for us.  SO, that plan was foiled. This year, I made a little checklist (on butcher paper!) that Santa has to sign. I’ll make Dad bring it up, because Santa doesn’t sign it unless he checks everything off, which he will , so then the KIDS will have proof that Santa came. Then, finally, with Dad leading the way, we walk S-L-O-W-L-Y down the stairs and settle in front of our stockings.  We each take a box of cereal, and then the real Christmas Present Ceremony begins. By that time, it’ll be like 8:30 in the morning.  I’m trying to make myself as tired as possible today before 9pm so when I settle at at 9 or 9:30 I’ll be so tired that after I force myself to read HP2* (for about the twentieth time, literally-no exaggeration!) until 10 I’ll be so tired that I’ll go right to sleep and, hopefully, not wake up till 8. (If you don’t know me that well, me sleeping in till 8 would really be amazing. I get up pretty early, like at 6, and it’s hard for me to sleep till 8. I don’t do it often and normally, even Christmas morning and vacations and weekends, I’m up by at latest 7:30.) Well, it’s now 5:45.  If anyone actually bothers to read this, PLEASE put in a comment some way for me to pass time and tire myself out. Don’t expect any posts tomorrow until past noon if at all, because not only is it Christmas morning, but we’re usually not done downstairs until about noon, eleven at very earliest.

Okay, I’m done. I need to get off now and run around a lot.

Goodbye, I hope you survive tonight without exploding!!!! (Don’t hold your breath for me.)

-Camryn

*HP2 is actually Harry Potter 2. We had to abbreviate it because I don’t exactly know why, I guess it was too long.