This will be the first year that DS isn't confined to his room (first the crib, then the toddler lock :)) on Christmas morning. In previous years, we just got up as soon as we heard him starting to wake up on the monitor and one of us would go get him up when we were all set up (camera/camcorder and that kinda thing). Now with potty training, etc., he comes and goes from his room to potty, etc. He gets up early too, so I KNOW he will get up before we do on xmas morning. The way our house is arranged, he'd have to come through the LR to get to our room.
Anyone else with a similar situation? Any thoughts? I figure the only way I can do this is if I set my alarm for the crack of dawn and hope I get up before he does. LOL. Or am I just out of luck seeing that first impression?
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I definitely want to cherish this time while he's young, which is why I'm so set on being up before him and seeing his face when he sees all the unwrapped presents. We'll see how it goes when we get to Christmas morning! Thanks!
You could always sleep in his room... One year we were worried about the same thing. We enlisted my brother (the favorite uncle) to sleep on an inflatable mattress in the hall outside the kids rooms. He amused the kids until we would get up and ready. You could have a slumber party together maybe... Or enlist an older child...
Our best Christmas was 3 years ago when we lived in an apartment that had the kids rooms on one end and ours on the other. My husband was working 2nd shift and got home around midnight. The kids were up by 1:00 am and saw all the gifts, they went crazy and even though we tried to put them back to bed....well Santa came and any kid will not go back to bed once they've seen that! So, we let them open all the gifts and we all crashed on the living room floor that night. The best advice I can give is to have your cameras on the sofa so they are easy to grab and just enjoy it...whatever time he wakes up at. Cherish it because you never know what next year will bring. :-)
My house is the same way and I know my four year old will be up way early and she will wake up her brother (3yr old). I just figured I would hear them yelling and I will have the camera and video right near my bed ready to go. I also thought about having her sleep with us that night, but not sure if we can pull off getting the house ready with her so close to the living room. Best of luck.
J.,
Have you thought about putting Jingle Bells on his door?
Maybe your Elf on the Shelf can guard his door. If he comes out without telling you, "Fred" will tell Santa that he didn't follow the rules...
I will tell you that one of my fondest memories was having my girls crawl in bed and tell us "Mommy! Daddy! Santa came!"
Our santa didn't wrap anything, so they saw it all. Their eyes were twinkling and excited as they described everything. Their version was so sweet!! They were taking turns describing, bouncing like a tennisball. I didn't own a video at the time, but their describing the things under tree would have been priceless. It didn't matter that we didn't see the initial reaction, we got the story in 4 and 7 year old voice.
:-)
T.
We had this issue in our old house. Most mornings, he would come to our room to wake us up. But I told him he didn't want to scare or surprise Santa, so we showed him how to call for us in the monitor and we'd come get him just on Christmas morning. I remember him calling for us every hour on the hour on CHristmas Eve! He stayed in his bed though! Now, we have a 2 story house with all bedrooms upstairs. So, the kids have to wake us up and they sit at the top of the stairs while we get the cameras and turn on the tree and stuff. I remember doing that with my sisters as a kid too!
Our daughter was always SO excited for Santa coming. It ended up being tradition that she would pounce into our room (often 3-4am) to tell is Santa came.
We would get up, she would have fun with opening Santa gifts and then within an hour or 2 we'd all nap a little.
We loved hearing her run down the steps and into our room SO excited.
She'll be 15 on 12/27 and she still gets up very early for "Santa" and we have early morning family time.
Enjoy! They grow up too fast!
We wait for our son to fall asleep then move him to our room. Then we put out the gifts. There rooms are on the other side of the house and you have to pass the tree to get to our room.
We have this issue too. And our Santa doesn't wrap gifts, so we don't want him walking through our living room. We plan on moving a reclining chair in front of the doorway...in an emergency he could get out, but we will hear it when he gets up. Last year at my mother's, we set up a baby gate to slow him down. He could open it, but we heard him before he "escaped". And we have been pumping him up to let him know that he has to wake up mommy and daddy first, by yelling for us so we could make sure it was morning and he didn't accidentally wake up before Santa came. We are also thinking of setting up the baby monitor, so we will hear him. I'll be checking to see what others are doing...maybe we will get an better idea to steal. Merry Christmas!
