I don't know about you, but for me Christmas was the best day of the year (a close second best was the last day of school before summer vacation).
Christmas morning was always great fun for me and my brother. I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was 7 or 8 years old, but I still believed in getting presents no matter who or what the source.
My parents were happy to oblige us. They were always generous in their gift giving, and never failed to to keep us busy, in the early hours of December 25th, opening gifts.
I don't mind saying that nowadays, though still exciting, Christmas is a lot less the event it was back then. These Christmas mornings my wife and I usually sleep in then enjoy a cup of coffee before opening up our gifts.
One Christmas I remember fondly. My parents lacked adequate storage areas in our row home. This particular holiday my brother and I were getting a couple of larger items, a pool table and a couple of bikes. One morning, about 5 days before Christmas, we saw that there was a sign on the basement door. It read 'KEEP OUT'. Due to the fact that our basement door did not lock, keeping us out of there would have probably required an armed guard. About 2 minutes later, we snuck down there. Of course on Christmas morning we acted surprised as hell.
One quick note about the pool table. It was not one of the fancier models. In fact, it was kind of cheap. We had to keep putting stuff under the legs to keep it level (eventually it was about a foot higher then when purchased). Then to top it off, the surface beneath the felt was some type of plywood, which couldn't wait to warp in our humid basement. The good thing was that my brother and I knew how play the crooked thing. Many of our friends would watch in amazement as the hit cue ball, after going straight for a while, would suddenly make a 45 degree turn to knock their ball into the pocket.
But warps and all, I loved that pool table, and I know my brother and our friends did too.
