Just now Matt brought out youngest child, age 5, down to the office. As they approached I could hear that he was sobbing and hysterical and Matt was laughing which I thought odd until I saw him.

Each of the kids have oversized, home made Christmas stockings - a stupid idea I came up with when the eldest was born, now with 4 oversized stockings to fill I go why oh why oh why every year at the cost of filling 4 giant stockings but I digress...

Master 5, was in his sister's stocking, it came up to his hips and his own stocking was stuck on his head - quite a comical sight which explained why Matt couldn't help having a chuckle as we attempted to rescue him.

Matt explained, while our son sobbed that he was stuck, that both of them were unable to get the Christmas stocking off his head - the lining had bunched together so they couldn't just pull it off without hurting him.

I fiddled with it and got the one off his head off then we got him out of the one on his legs. He sat there looking very sheepish as he then tried to explain that the only reason he got stuck in this manner was because there were no presents in the stockings - otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get his head and his legs into them.

We explained the necessity of going to sleep first and waiting til Christmas morning (something we had already explained at bedtime and I think at least 5 times in the past week). He sheepishly agreed that perhaps that was smarter than staying up for hours and getting stuck in the Christmas stockings so now has finally gone back to bed and things are starting to sound quiet - yay!

Of course the older two kids are still up watching the Nightmare Before Christmas so it looks like it may well be Christmas Day before Matt and I get to go to bed as we can't do that til we have filled the stockings and we can't do that til they are all asleep.

Still, nothing beats Christmas through the eyes of children - brings all the wonder and excitement of childhood back.