When my kids were 5 or 6, they wanted to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. But we'd seen them before when they'd been up long past bedtime. No thanks.
So rather than crushing their New Year experience I started bumping the clocks ahead a half hour at a time on New Year's Eve.
The clock said it was after 11 when I pointed out how close we were. At 10 seconds 'til "midnight," we started the countdown . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
The clock said it was after 11 when I pointed out how close we were. At 10 seconds 'til "midnight," we started the countdown . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
Yay, Happy New Year!, we'd shout and whoop. Little hats and horns, confetti, poppers, a toast with sparkling apple juice! Yay! Yay! We stayed up 'til New Year's!
Each year, they'd start early reminding us that they had stayed up the last year. Yes, yes, you can do that again this year. In a few years, of course, they could not be so easily fooled so we started letting them stay up for the real midnight. Finally, when they were about 11 or 12, I told them our trick.
They were far more incredulous than I thought they'd be. (They underestimate me.) They might have been a little miffed, too. You know kids. . . .
Not really tapu's kids,
but their expressions serve.
I keep trying to talk my son into lighting the fireworks earlier, so I can go to sleep. He just tells me to take a nap, and he'll wake me up when it is time.
ReplyDelete