a traditional [moment]

[moment 224]

Eris, Onyx, and I were chatting as we drove home from doing yardwork at Gramma and Papa's house, and somehow the conversation turned to time zones and then Santa Claus' ability to take advantage of time zones and such around the world to deliver everyone's gifts. (Yes, these "children" are 14 and 16 and yes they know who Santa Claus is.)

I mentioned that growing up, my sister and I were never allowed to open gifts on Christmas Eve (no matter how much I begged), because Santa didn't bring them until we were asleep on Christmas Eve night (even though my parents also gave us gifts on Christmas, so there were always those gifts that could be opened). That is, until my senior year of high school when a foreign exchange student from Australia, Sarah, became part of our family.

That Christmas Eve, once the day's festivities were done and we were in the kitchen cleaning up and chatting, Sarah mentioned that it was already Christmas in Australia, as they were half a day ahead of us. She insisted this was a very good reason for us to open just one Christmas gift that Christmas Eve. Somehow, this argument seemed completely logical to my parents and the wish was granted. 

So my children have Sarah to thank for starting the family tradition of opening a gift on Christmas Eve - a tradition I gladly continued when I had a family of my own. My children also open a gift on St. Nicholas Day (December 6th) because, well, any excuse to open a gift even earlier than Christmas Eve is a good one!