Wake-up call

This year, hubby had to work on Christmas Day. On the fire department, they work 24 hour shifts, which means his shift was from 8 a.m. Christmas Day to 8 a.m. Dec. 26. We didn't want him to miss out on Christmas morning and Santa, so we made plans to wake the kids around 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning. That way, we could all see what Santa brought and spend a little time together before he had to leave around 6:30 a.m. We've had to do this in the past, as hubby's shift works holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Years Eve) two out of every three years. Now, when Santa comes to our house, he does not wrap the presents. He simply pulls them out of his sack and sits them under the tree -- fully assembled, batteries inserted, ready to go. The kids know that they are not allowed to come out of their rooms until their dad or myself come get them. We like to get up first, put on a pot of coffee, and have the camcorder/camera ready to go and see their expressions when they run in the living room and discover their loot. Since hubby and I like to assist Santa in assembling all the toys, we were up quite late. It was around 2:15 a.m. when we finally got to bed. I knew we had to get up early (and I have OCD) so I set my three alarm clocks (2-clock radio and 1-cell phone alarm) and had them right next to my bed. Somehow, hubby and I both slept through all three alarms. I'm not a morning person anyway, but, I guess I was so tired that I didn't even hear the alarms and turned them off in my sleep. Our daughter, Shelby, is a morning person. We call her our automatic alarm clock. Most mornings, she is the first one to wake up. She's ususally up, dressed, and already had her breakfast before I even wake up (bad mom, I know). So, Christmas morning was no exception. She woke up, but, knowing that she couldn't get up without us, she waited. And waited. Finally, around 6:05 a.m. she couldn't wait any longer. She used her cell phone to call me on my cell phone (which she knew was sitting right by my bed). "Hello", I said very sleepily (thinking who the heck is calling me at this time). "Aren't we going to get up and see what Santa brought and doesn't Dad have to go to work?", she said. OOOPS! We scrambled out of bed and got all the kiddos. I didn't even have time to get my camcorder, just a few pics on my digital camera. Hubby only had about 20-25 minutes before he had to leave for work. Santa was good to the kids. The highlights: Cameron got "Rock Band" for his XBox 360 and a new skateboard deck, Shelby got a new bike and My Simms for Nintendo DS, Connor got a guitar and a wrestling cage, and Zachary got a Nintendo DS and video chair. They were all busy playing and checking out their stuff, so I went back to bed for a quick nap. The rest of the day was spent at my in-laws. Later that night, my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law took all the kids to see the 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' movie. We missed hubby not being with us, but, all in all, we had a great day.

~K