We open a present on Christmas Eve every year but for the first (and last) time we decided to open all the gifts under the tree instead of just one. We were expecting to see a whir of torn paper flying about as Boo raced to open all of her presents. She’s two, after all! What toddler doesn’t love ripping the pretty paper on everyone’s presents as well as her own?
Boo, that’s who!
She opened the first gift and promptly ran around to show each of us what she’d gotten. Then she played with it. And played and played and played. It took for_evah to get her interested in opening another present in lieu of playing with the one she’d already gotten! At one point I offered her a brightly wrapped box, suggesting she go ahead and open it. She took it and threw it at me, saying, “NO, Gandma, I pwaying!”
She meant it, too.
She savored each and every gift, one at a time, and took a crazy amount of time to cycle through all of her gifts. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen! She had a great time and enjoyed herself immensely and I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever felt a present was as appreciated as I did Christmas Eve.
We won’t be doing this again, opening all the gifts the night before Christmas. The lighting was horrible for picture-taking, the living room wasn’t cleaned (toys were everywhere) and it just felt wrong. Made Christmas morning feel off as well. Can’t say we’ve never been spontaneous (was a spur of the moment decision) but can say we’ll stick with tradition from here on out! Boo’s birthday is in June … wonder if she’ll be more into tearing her gifts open fast by then …..