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Unwrapped!
By Beth Gleim
I woke around 4 in the morning. Mom and Dad had probably just gone to bed an hour before. To my delight, Santa had left a goldmine. My bestfriend, Denise, could never wake early so I had promised to call her as soon as I awoke. I did, and laid the phone down after several rings. For two torturing hours I lay reading all the tags, building piles. I knew my name and my brothers'. I woke them around 6 a.m. or so.
Now, Dad slept oblivious on a good night and you could get a "yes" from him at any time, unbeknownst to him. I asked Dad if we could open gifts. He muttered something I took as a yes. Down I flew, brothers in tow. They were 5 and almost 3. We unwrapped everything that had our names on it – including the ones that said "from" or "love Beth, Scott and Chris." My parents awoke to find every gift in the house unwrapped including neighbors', cousins', aunts', uncles' and grandparents'. I could only recognize our names. We were forbidden to ever open another gift before my parents were fully awake. They spent the next two hours sorting and rewrapping all the gifts.