My daughters are nine, seven, and four years of age. Although the nine year old and the seven year old play along with the idea of Santa, they don’t really believe anymore (I think they won’t admit it because they want to encourage my enthusiasm). My wee daughter, however, believes with a great strong belief and I am determined to let her have that as long as possible.
In her mind, Mammy & Daddy don’t buy presents; they magically appear from Santa on Christmas morn. Thus, the presents must be wrapped with stealth and hidden lest the baby cop on to the deception. Right now, I got 95% of the gifts wrapped and hidden while they were in school, but now they are out of school and a cluster of gifts arrived ‘late’ this past Saturday. I cannot wrap them at night with any security because the girls are light sleepers and tend to get up for drinks of water and other things and OF COURSE they would do that if I had out the wrapping paper.
For that reason I am resorting to blatant playacting to get these bad boys wrapped without them knowing. Tonight I am making a production of telling my hubby that I have to wrap gifts to the cousins and he can be the one to read the girls a bedtime story while I do that. Then, with him standing guard and reading the next-to-last chapter of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, I will wrap like my life depends on it. Scissors will fly! Tape will stick!
Yes, I have been hitting the eggnog too hard.