>Live in the Presents

What do you get under the Christmas tree when you have four kids and two adults in one house?

Uh. 90 presents.

I shit you not. 90. Presents.

Most of which, I had to wrap.

I’m a little (okay, well, very is a better word for it) embarrassed even to say that we’re opening that many presents on Christmas morning. But you have to understand, there are no stereos under the tree, no iPods or cell phones or designer clothes. The fact is, we’ve established sort of a tradition here in the Ferrier household: Nice stuff on birthdays…

Cheap stuff on Christmas Day.

Yep. We just like to open presents. For hours. And hours. One Christmas, it took us three hours to open presents. This year, I think we’re going to set a new record. It will be an all-day present-opening extravaganza. I picture us busily unwrapping, oohing and aahing, and pausing every few hours for a nap amongst the discarded gift paper and bows, or a Christmas candy break before continuing to open even more presents. It’s gonna be AWESOME.

Wait a second. Did I just hear someone call me a Rich Bitch? Oh girl, please. Don’t you know what happens to all those products I review? Why on earth would I be interested in reviewing Roxy perfume, or The Transformers on DVD, or a gigantic Miffy bunny? Oh, and another thing- why did I get up at 4-freaking-a-m the Friday after Thanksgiving and jostle my way through thousands of bargain hunters all clamoring for $99 TV/DVD players? I did it for my family, of course. I did it so that we could spend 72 straight hours. Opening. Presents. They may be small. They may not have cost anything. And in Bruiser’s case, they may be a whole bunch of Punky’s old baby toys that he hasn’t seen yet. But they’re wrapped and dammit, for one special day, we’ll pretend like we’re millionaires and we’ll give and we’ll get and we’ll have a whole lot of crazy, decadent fun.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.