…On Christmas Eve night, Cary and I were tired as usual, and so we got everyone to bed at a decent time, hit the sheets ourselves, and got a good night’s sleep. Our final instruction to the kids was that we would get everyone up when we woke up, to see what Santa had brought to celebrate the birth of Jesus. As was typical, I awoke first, roused Cary, then awoke the younger kids who had rooms adjacent to ours in the basement. We then all crept upstairs to awake the older kids.
As we entered the living room, our hearts sank, our stomachs grew sick, and our anger rose to fever pitch! All of the presents under the tree, and the stockings that were filled to overflowing, were opened and dumped out everywhere! It was horrifying! Once we came to our senses, we realized that our special day which the whole family had hoped, planned, and waited for, was now completely ruined. Our two newly placed kids had ruined Christmas for the whole family….