The Night Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through our house, two little girls were stirring till at least 9:00. Bridget told me she wanted to go to bed right after dinner, at 7:00. But, I knew that wouldn’t happen. I’d have been sitting back there with her for two hours waiting for her to go to sleep. So, I talked her into waiting until 8:00. We put out some cookies and milk for Santa, then watched a 70s-vintage cartoon called, “The Night Before Christmas.”

We looked at NORAD’s web site, where they track Santa’s progress in his trek round the world, at 7:55 p.m. At that time, he was leaving South America and was headed towards the southern part of the U.S. Stressing that Santa’s arrival was imminent, I marched them to the bedroom, got them into their nightgowns, then read (you guessed it) “The Night Before Christmas” as our bedtime story. (Think there’s a theme here?) I wound up talking to them, doing all I could to calm them down, for about an hour. I don’t know how many times I warned them that Santa might just skip over our house if he flew over and they were still awake. This tactic didn’t scare them too much. Then, I pulled out the old, “Santa’s watching you right now and seeing how you’re not going to sleep like I asked you to. He might not bring you any toys.” They weren’t biting on that one, either.

I think what finally put them to sleep was a big crash from their high of pre-Christmas energy and excitement. Once they were out, they slept soundly all night.

P.S. Don’t tell the girls, but our dog Ginger actually ate Santa’s Christmas cookies . . .