Once I had fully figured out how the Santa thing worked as a kid I had big ideas about what my first ‘grown up’ Christmas would be like.  I imagined that my mom and dad would let me stay up with them Christmas Eve after the other two ‘little ones’ had gone to bed.  I had a vivid image of how the night would go.  We would sit around laughing, telling jokes, wrapping gifts, and (of course) enjoying some sugar cookies by the fire while the little ones snoozed.  I was crushed when I was told to go to bed anyway.  Now that I’m on the other side of things I realize that playing Santa isn’t really as glamorous as I had once imagined…and now all I want is someone to tell me to go to bed early.