Still Decorating, Parts One, Two, and Three of Our Christmas Story

 Last Spring, I think, I bought two watering cans at a yard sale, one orange and one green, both new. They are small, painted metal cans. I love them. They were only $1. I have spotted the holly or some sort of evergreen tree/bush that has stems with red berries the length of the branch. When I can cut three branches, I will have another decoration. 

Maybe one Christmas village house made it here. If so, I can convince Tommy to move a bit of his junk from the short bookcase near his chair. Any little bit of Christmas light can't hurt anything. If I find two, I will put the other one on the table next to me. 

Today is another cold and dreary day. Yesterday, I decided we won't go anywhere today. We will go for a drive to relieve some of the cabin fever. Well, we can stave it off since neither of us feels it yet. 

Amazingly, since the tooth extraction, I am sleeping better. But, now, my ear and lower jaw hurt since I took the last antibiotic pill. And, the little knot in my ear has come back. I feel off-balance once again. I think I could be in trouble, especially if I wait until the New Year.

I am going to go ahead and tell the whole story of our Christmas story we pulled on the children. And, I am just starting over.

When my children were two- and four-years-old, I decided to add something new to Christmas. We had an old horse collar or something leather with huge bells on it. I gathered the two children on my son's bed and read "The Night Before Christmas" to him (3.5) and his sister (1.5). I had turned off the tv and all was quiet. 

My husband took the bells outside the window and said loudly, "HO HO HO!" as he rang the bells. He pulled off a very deep voice that was unrecognizable to unsuspecting children. I have to admit, this was not at all the reaction I expected. It took my heart a bit to start beating more slowly. I can only imagine what it did to my children, especially my daughter.

This next happened simultaniously and gave me a start. Son yelled and ripped off to the window, pulling back the curtain. Daughter slipped right off the bed and went under the bed. She was so fast! And, she had never crawled under the bed before. I was heartened by her survival instinct, but sad she was so frightened by Santa. 

When my husband came into the house, he was furious. I tried not to laugh. In an effort to escape detection by my son who was opening the curtain, he slipped and fell in the muddy driveway. He had mud up to his shoulders where he wallowed about, trying to get up.

A few years later, in a different house and a different state with three children and two older, we had a good time once more. The older, a boy, had been suspicious for several years. He declared his Daddy was outside since he was always at the church office, now two blocks away instead of next door. Of course, we denied it. So, Daddy had to be inside this year. This was our second year in this house and Daddy had been gone on outside the house on Christmas Eve once before.

I had a plan. I taped a 17 minute silent tape and then had husband do the HO HO HO while ringing the same bells. Then, I put the tape recorder on the front porch outside the front door that we did not use. An extension cord was strung to the carport and to the door we used. I tested this several times to make sure it worked. 

Instead of turning the tape player on to play, I pressed play and then when we were ready to hear Santa, I could just plug it in. It worked! 

We all sat down for me to read to them The Night Before Christmas. The plan went off without a hitch. My son, 8 or 9 by this time, maybe younger, just went berserk, running around and demanding to know how we did it, who was out there? We just laughed and told him "Santa!" So, that was the year I finally told him. 

It was a fun run and the older daughter knew by the next year. So, there was only the baby. Somehow, we never did it for her. I am not sure why. 

Have you ever had to trick your kids to make a memory for Christmas? Well, I mean besides the ultimate trick of getting them to believe in Santa. If your kids never believed in Santa, oh well. I know you other people will have stories.