A very merry EARLY moring :)

THE VOW:
Kyle and I seem to have our times a little confused.  I told him that no matter what, I intend to be the one the always wakes up early on Christmas morning.  Whether it's just the two of us, we have children or we have to sneak out of the lockdown block in the Nursing Home in our old age, Christmas morning should start no later than 6 in the a.m. (at the latest!). 

THE TRADITION:
When we were growing up as kids, we would all hunker down in the same bedroom and try to sleep on Christmas Eve.  Of course at that time sleep was almost IMPOSSIBLE to come by, but some how I would always drift off and wake up with even more excitement and anticipation than I had when I went to bed.  The same ritual of running in to see the tree and the stockings preceded someone being chosen to go wake up mom and dad.  Of course we had no shame or reserve and would talk in overly loud voices, jump on their bed and even make annoying sounds to insure that they were sufficiently awake enough for us to return to the tree.

THE DILEMMA:
THIS year, as I said, we had our times mixed up.  We were here in St. George with Kyles family this year and we had a wonderful time!  We stayed up and played games and ate food.  Then Kyle and I came home and played more games and ate more food.  We followed this pattern until 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning.  At that point I decided that it was finally time to go to sleep.  When I suggested this to Kyle, he looked at me with this confused and perplexed look and said, "But aren't we going to open presents?"

THE PERFECT MORNING :D
I was flabbergasted!  It seems completely unnatural to even consider opening presents on Christmas morning without even having gone to sleep yet!  I expressed as much to him and insisted that we had to go to sleep first and wake up and THEN open presents.  He looked me square in the eye and said, "But Caitlin, I am awake now"  He flashed his beautiful blue eyes at me and I melted.  So on Christmas Morning of 2011 at 3:00 a.m., Kyle and I celebrated our second Christmas together and it was wonderful :)