Yeah, you read it right – it’s Christmas Eve in the Hakes household!
There’s a mince pie and some Jack Daniels on the table ready for Santa, flanked by a carrot for Rudolph. James has gone off to bed stupidly excited. He said to me earlier – “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, it will be the best day ever!”. I love the excitement he has for Christmas. He’s six now, and I’m not sure how much longer he’ll ‘believe’ in Santa. He’s not really questioned his belief in the big guy – I was around his age when I worked out that he might not be real. I remember vividly setting a ‘trap’ for Santa that I explained in great detail to my parents – including the one way ‘Santa’ could avoid setting it off. Needless to say, Santa didn’t trip my DIY alarm.
I remember waking up stupidly early each Christmas morning, Santa would always leave presents in our bedrooms. Often I’d wake up at 3 or 4am, open everything, have a play with it, then go back to sleep. One year I got some games for my Amstrad CPC 464, I played them all before the sun came up. James has been told in no uncertain terms that he’s not allowed up until the sun is up on the GroClock. Yes, I know that’s very mean of me, especially considering how I used to behave, but – well, I’m a meaner parent than mine were! According to the cool kids at Happy Beds the average kid will wake up at 6.44am on Christmas Day. James’ GroClock is set to wake up at 6.45am, so he’s pretty much spot on. There’s a ‘Christmas Wake Up Calculator‘ to estimate when your kids will be up.
His sister isn’t here tonight, however I’m off to collect her first thing tomorrow so she can open her gifts from Santa. Yes, she’s 15 and pretty clued up on Santa, but she’s still getting a present from him. Then, it will be a pretty standard Christmas Day, lots of presents, lots of food, lots of fuss and some rare time together as a family. I’m fascinated to see what Duggee the puppy makes of it all too. He’s behaved impeccably so far, he barked at the Christmas tree once, he’s tried to nibble on a few ornaments on the tree, but the intriguing presents underneath haven’t been touched.
I know that it will all be over far too quickly, and Georgia will be back off to her Mum to spend Christmas in France. On Sunday morning James is off to “The North” to spend Christmas with his Northern half of the family. It’s always odd not having them on ‘the’ Christmas Day, but our earlier Christmas Day will be perfect. Then on Tuesday, we’ll have a more ‘grown-up’ day – we’re going over to Mum’s to have her fuss and ply us with endless cups of tea, food, and alcohol.
However you’re celebrating Christmas this year, whenever you’re celebrating it, I hope you have a good one. If you’re alone, don’t forget to look at the #joinin tag on Twitter, there are thousands of people who will help you not be alone.
Thanks for reading in 2018, I really appreciate you guys for still being here after 10 years.
Yeah, this is a bit of a collab with Happy Beds – those presents don’t pay for themselves..
