Clergy Family Confidential

3:09 am. Are you kidding me?? Both boys came into our room in the wee hours asking if they could go downstairs to see if Santa had come. I nearly had to block the stairwell to prevent their stampede. My only recourse was the desperate parental reminder that if Santa Claus sees them they could say sayonara to seeing any presents. They reluctantly returned to their bunk beds and I had to stay there for another 30 minutes while Ben squirmed and Zack announced the new time on the clock every two minutes. In between he kept asking, “Has it been four hours yet?”

The other problem was that I’d only gotten to sleep at 1:30 am following Midnight Mass. Actually I was home a bit earlier but I still had to wrap one of Bryna’s gifts. Well, I use that term loosely. What I really did was cover it in two A&P grocery bags with a bit of scotch tape as the coup de grace. Classy, huh? It’s even worse when you consider that Bryna’s the best wrapper since L.L. Cool J. Everything she wraps look like it was professionally done, which it sort of was. One of her dark secrets is that she managed a local Hallmark store while still in high school. Don’t tell her I told you.

At least the kids slept in (the second time around) until 6:40 am. Given the alternative, I’ll take it.