Now that we have crawled out from under this toy mountain, I have a magical story to tell you.
BigBrother fell asleep at church during Christmas Eve service. He did get to hear me sing but fell asleep shortly thereafter. Upon arriving home, he very sleepily unwrapped his Christmas pajamas, gave kisses, said prayers and went to sleep in his wooden toddler bed. He promptly fell asleep; that deep, deep sleep of a preschooler who had a very long day.
While he was sleeping, some magic took place. More on that in a moment.
On Christmas morning, FireDad and I heard BigBrother leave his room, go to the bathroom and then he came into our room. He was a bit quieter than usual which, to be honest, is quite unusual for the kid. Something about inheriting my genes. And so we started to ask him questions.
FireMom: Was something different about your bedroom, BigBrother?
BigBrother: Yeeeeeees, my bed was different!
What had Santa done? We then talked about his bed for a few minutes before all traipsing into his room to see what exactly was different.
There we found a twin bed covered with a Very Hungry Caterpillar (his favorite book) bed set. He started talking about Santa seeing as how there was a candy cane taped to the head board. (In the Fire Family household, Santa doesn’t wrap his presents but merely tapes a candy can to them so they can be seen against other presents.) LittleBrother then let us know that he was awake and we brought him in to inspect the new bed.
And, sure, the magic involved moving a sleeping child into his parent’s room, quietly removing a toddler bed that didn’t quite fit through the door, quietly building a bed frame in the room, quietly cussing when you stub your toe, sitting on every piece that FireDad needs, smiling at the finished product, snapping some pictures and then moving the deep-sleeping child back to his new bed, pushing him near the wall and praying he doesn’t fall out. It was quite a bit of work.
But the look on his face? Pure magic.
What a perfect Christmas memory.
(I’ll be honest. I did not come up with this idea myself. My parents did this for my brother when he moved to his big bed that Christmas. I remember, all too well, the look of amazement on his face. and, to be honest, it doesn’t look all that different than BigBrother’s amazed face considering how much my brother and I resemble each other. Feel free to steal the idea for next year.)