I have a few memories of times when I've gone looking for trouble. I have always had a difficult time sleeping through the night on Christmas Eve. The excitement of presents and surprises and food and fun builds up the whole week before until I'm brimming with anticipation. The suspense finally overpowers any desire to sleep, usually between 1:45 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning.
And so it happened one Christmas when I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old. I woke up and checked the time to once again find out I was up too early. It always killed me to realize I still had several hours before Mom or Dad would allow us to come out of our rooms to open presents. But a trip down the hallway to the living room and the Christmas tree would most definitely go unnoticed so I did it. I quietly tiptoed into the living room and flipped on the lights to see a marvelous array of presents bulging from beneath the Christmas tree. At that point, it wasn't enough to just stand at the entrance to the living room and observe the presents from afar. I had to investigate further. You see, that year, I wanted a skateboard for Christmas and Mom and Dad didn't really seem to let on that such a request of Santa would be a possibility. And from about 20 feet away, I couldn't make out the shape of a skateboard from any of the presents in sight. So curiosity got the better of me and I went for a closer look... with my hands.
Also to note, somehow or other, my younger sister, Crystal, was awake. I must have woken her up and talked her in to coming with me to the living room. (Her mistake! -- Sorry Crys!!!)
I started lifting presents and shaking them gently. That didn't produce much knowledge regarding what was in them. Then, in a flash, the wrong idea played out in my mind and I knew what I had to do if I were going to know more about the contents of those wrapped presents. I tried carefully sliding my finger in between the folds of the wrapping paper. The first few times, I was pretty careful and untaped the wrapping paper while keeping it in tact. I got through a few unmarked presents (those are presents without nametags) before finally ripping the wrapping paper. I panicked but quickly remembered where Mom kept the wrapping paper and decided to just rewrap it. In fact, I realized I could rewrap any of the presents I would thereafter unwrap as I was pretty sure there was enough wrapping paper.
There was one present in particular that did not have a nametag on it. It was small and it fit inside a little ceramic cup I made for my mom a year or so before. I figured that where it was in the cup I made that perhaps the present was for me. I unwrapped it, not being too careful and ruining the wrapping paper around it. It was a little jewelry case with some earrings. Obviously it wasn't for me.
I snooped around the room some more and actually came across an orange skateboard behind the couch! I was thrilled, elated, even in seventh heaven! My crusade was a success.
At that point I realized I needed to rewrap some of the presents so I went to get some new wrapping paper. There wasn't any paper with the same design on it so I just picked something Christmasy and rewrapped them, placing them back where I remember finding them. Crystal and I went back to bed and got up a few hours later for the festivities.
We started unwrapping presents but I was too eager to wait. Without any prompting from Mom or Dad, I went for my skateboard. That must have tipped them off that I knew something they didn't. But when I took the little present from the ceramic cup and handed it to my Mom, Sherlock Dad put two and two together and halted Christmas. I was interrogated as to how I new about the skateboard and Mom's present.
The truth came out, and Christmas was ruined. Crystal and I were banished to chairs in the kitchen. Through tear-filled eyes, we stared at our own little corners of the kitchen while Dad threatened to take our gifts to Deseret Industries. I don't remember how long we sat on chairs but it could have been for a few hours.
After the dust settled, we were allowed to get off our chairs and later that day we got our presents. The next year, though, Mom and Dad moved the big recliner down the hall to a spot in front of my bedroom door and tied the doornob to it to protect the Christmas presents from me.
Crazy, huh!?! What's the worst thing you've ever done around Christmas?
5 comments:
You were quite the trouble-maker, huh? :) I was all boring and well-behaved as a kid. Which begs the question, why aren't my kids more like I was?!? They must take after Brett.
That is a hilarious, and terribly sad Christmas story! I love surprises, so I was never tempted to peek, but I remember one year I was real crabby because I didn't really like what I got- what an ungrateful brat. I hope my kids aren't like that when they're in Middle School- ha! Thanks for the comment on my blog =).
Who'd have thunk YOU would have caused so much trouble! Personally I was a perfect angel at Christmas time. It was always torture waiting until 8 am to come out of my room though, especially since I was the only one downstairs in the room next to the family room and our Christmas tree.
If you can believe it, Kenny and I actually have to wake our kids up Christmas morning. We are always the first ones awake Christmas morning. I guess old habits die hard!
I never woke up in the middle of the night before Christmas morning to take my new bike for a test ride in the living room only to crash into the table and break a lamp. Nope, I never did that.
I never got all that excited about Christmas as I can recall. As long as I had my pocket knife and BB gun I was a pretty happy guy.
We did have the year that we wrapped up a pretty big package with all kinds of things like newspaper and dog food inside and gave it to my cousin. She was so excited to open it and it turned out to be a box full of garbage. We caught it good for that one.
Post a Comment