Grandpa Torgensen's Story

I have two things that I remember most from my childhood Christmases...

The first involved how we would get up on Christmas morning. My four brothers and I would, of course, wake up very early like at 5 am. We were under strict instructions not to come downstairs and until my dad gave the signal. This involved him yelling very loudly, "Santa Claus has been here". Once we heard that, we quickly ran down to the living room. That is a tradition that I've carried forward in my own family.

The second involved how we would open our presents. When my dad told us it was time, we all ran to the tree and grabbed our presents and put them into a pile next to our chair. Then we would madly open them all as quickly as possible to see what we got. Christmas was over in about 10 minutes. I remember when my oldest brother got married, his wife's family always opened their gifts one at a time, going around in a circle, while everyone watched each other. Us boys always thought that was really stupid! Nevertheless, in my family now, we open our gifts one at a time. I guess it wasn't so stupid after all. It makes Christmas last longer and it's always fun to see everyone's excitement as the gifts are revealed.