so dd10 has just gone to bed. help me stay awake to take up the presents. i am rubbish at this bit!!

[aPirateInaPearTree]

if i drink i feel more tired, so am drinking tea, then baileys, tea then baileys to water it down. perhaps i should set the alarm.!!

Try peppermint tea with Bailey's in it!

Me too! DS went up about 9.30 but can't get to sleep. Might just go and check on him as I've already fallen asleep twice on the sofa!!

i have some tic tacs lol x
does anyone go to bed set the alarm for say 3 then do the stocking, tho in this house it's not a little stocking it's a girt big sack!!

DS 12 went to bed at 9.30. He said I will hang my stocking on the outside of the door santas life easier she needs to get to bed.

sleeps with the door open! is up there now staring at the stocking no doubt!! she is a rubbish sleeper at the best of times, since well birth really!! funny thing is tho, it's ME who wakes up before her waiting in anticipation on Christmas mornings!!

right, gonna get some chinese rice crackers to concentrate on.

My two 12 & 11 still reading - just going to do lights out now - figured keeping them awake as long as possible was the best strategy......here's hoping!

that was more mine this yr too! she seems much older than at 9 yrs!

ah inbetweeners is on, i can watch that!

Think one is asleep or at least pretending - just got youngest to drop off and then I can lay out the presents and fill the stockings.

He does have a tendency to drop off and then get up to the toilet after about 30 minutes so I'll need to leave it a while.

We started doing it but DH has lost the apple, which is a critcal stocking filler in this house!

mine has had two wees in 20 mins. great

and as a consequence of trying to be organised and wrap as I go, I now have stuff that I am sure I haven't wrapped that I can't find but have no way of knowing if it is in the pile or not - Hmmm - I'll just have to wait and see when they open up - not entirely sure if their stuff is even either. Usually because they are so close in age, I can swap stuff about at the last minute to make them roughly the same :o

gosh super organised you are. are there gifts hidden in hidey places then?

this is my 8th xmas just me and dd, but i do love it, i like the peace and the traditions we have together. was feeling a little glum earlier on, but am so excited for her. xx

DD1 (11) was in bed with a torch, to trap FC (or me!).

I was torn whether to speak to her about FC before Xmas, and thought I wouldn't, as it would spoil it for her. I thought I'd do it after. I thought she was just going along with it from one or two things she'd said, and the way she said them, anyway.

I'm not sure if she was asleep when I went in the second time (I took the torch off her the first time).

Feel a bit upset that I've ruined Xmas for her, now.

hmm. are you sure she clicked it was you? it's tricky. i was dropping hints about fc this past few weeks, (trying to ease it money wise for myself really) but she wasn't having any of it. x

I used two kinds of wrap - one for each boy, wrapped them up and stuck them under the spare bed, roughly one on each side. Today while they were occupied, I took all the presents out and put them into their giant present bags and stashed them behind the door covered with a sheet so they aren't obvious if you happen to open the door and glance in.

Stocking presents are in a bag each in my walk in wardrobe- hidden behind the shoe stores!!

I am sure your christmas will be great Pirate once she is finally asleep ;)

Sanity, you haven't ruined anything, she will still be as excited when she waked up. My two seem to still believe, eldest I am not sure about but 11 year old I am sure does - I didn't want to break it to them before Christmas, but it just never seems to be the right time.

it's very quiet, might be safe for santa to come now :)

i have to go and get the cat out off her bed first. bugger. why has he chosen tonight.

Aww Nooo. Bleedin cat! mine was just looking bemused as I snuck past her basket in the dark with bags of stuff :)

I've got everything downstairs - too much to fit in the stocking the have on the door so I've filled some felt sacks I had - sure they will be fine with that - do I leave the empty stockings or put them back on the fireplace?

Am in that Nomans land where I have got stockings out of DDs room and one of DSs out but can't get presents in again due to waking up issues. Argh

And then the cat freaked me out by coming into my room and I thought it was a child....

leave them, or maybe find something to put it them?

i thought i was going for it then dd woke up having her 'nightmare'. the recurrent one.

then cried, poor love she's due on too, yes tomorrow. yes she's ten :(.

so anyway, she's awake and so am i. glad i didn't pilfer the stocking out her room now.

We leave the stockings on the outside of the doors - save all that hassle.

Aww Pirate, wee soul :(

I could put something in the stockings but can't fit everything in - then the sacks would look too empty -

I wish we did leave things outside doors but don't think right now is the time to change