Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. I love it. I blame this on my mother. Christmas is a holiday steeped in tradition for us. Every Christmas eve we get to open a present and we read the Christmas story and we usually had a Christmas play. And so many presents. John and I can't quite match the 5 children at home present load, but I like to try.
Christmas starts before October, when no one gets anything new in the Madsen household. Everything we purchase gets wrapped in coordinating red and white wrapping paper and labeled. Items are put in a red and green bin until the day after Thanksgiving when the tree goes up and the neatly wrapped present pile begins. Since I want a big pile, all clothing and anything household that isn't cleaner goes under the tree. Most of Danielle's huge pile of presents last year was clothing she needed or diapers and wipes. They looked cute and she didn't really know the difference. So this year I was wrapping all the presents. I explained to John that all purchases in the Madsen household after October get wrapped. He was assigned some housework while I worked on our all important present pile. A few minutes later he took a break from the dishes to comment on my job. He looked up and pointed imperiously- "you can't wrap that for Christmas!"
I guess he was right. It was a clearance copy after all.
Husbands are always trying to break the rules these days.
I hope this doesn't throw off the equal number of presents per person rule.
Meanwhile my mother's Christmas spirit is so big she isn't ready for Christmas to end after it is over- she buys presents for next year. She is making us presents for next year and I know she has worked on them for hours. I already feel behind.