Most of the Christmas work around the Lewis household is done and just waiting for the big day. Aside from picking up a few more items, there’s really not a lot left to do.

Saturday afternoon we picked up our granddaughters and took them out to Craven for our annual Christmas get together with the family. It’s a large group which means lots of presents to opened by the girls and their cousins. I knew that sometime through the night our 10 year-old would ask the same question she asks every single year, and she didn’t disappoint. “Can I open one gift when we come over to your house next time?” I know how excited she gets about Christmas and I blurted out “Of course you can,” with the one caveat being that grandma would pick out the gift she got to open. I guess I shouldn’t have told her that because my wife always shoots that idea down. It’s just so hard to say no to that kid. What can I say? She has papa wrapped around her baby finger!

As I kid I always wanted to open up one gift on Christmas eve because a friend of mine got to do it at his house. I thought he was the luckiest kid in the world. My mom always said no to that idea. She was always a party pooper in that department, just like my wife. I had another friend whose family opened up all of it’s gifts on Christmas eve, which I thought was a little bit weird. They didn’t even put up their Christmas tree until the afternoon of the 24th! Talk about a strange tradition. You’d think that would make Christmas Day a little boring.

My favorite part of Christmas is watching the girls open their gifts on Christmas morning. There’s just something magical about the looks on their faces when they unwrap a gift that they really wanted.

I’m very happy that my mom wouldn’t let me open any gifts on Christmas eve. That just meant more magic on the morning after.

I just hope my granddaughter understands that logic this weekend when they come for a pre-Christmas sleepover.