Christmas Hijinx

A childhood Christmas memory

Mom and Dad have just gone to bed after setting up an elaborate Christmas surprise for the kids. They thought it would be nice to set up all the kid's Christmas toys into little displays in the living room instead of wrapping everything up. They put us kids to bed early and then waited until they thought we were asleep before beginning this venture. My oldest brother Philip had given us this advice before bed, "when they open the door to look in on you, breathe real slow and heavy so they'll think you're asleep". That's how my parents came to believe we were all in dreamland and it was safe to begin.
We paused our heavy breathing while they were in the living room, and listened carefully to see if we could determine what toys were being assembled by their sound. We soon discovered that plastic parts touching each other sounded pretty much the same regardless of what toy they belonged to. With curiosity at a fever pitch we resumed our heavy breathing as our parents looked in on us one last time before turning in.
After sufficient time had passed for our parents to get to sleep, Philip crept into our room and gave us the signal "lets go, and keep quiet". My brother Barry and I sneaked out of our room, past our parents door and down the hall to join the other kids in the living room. Since we lived out in the boonies where there were no streetlights, it was pitch black in the house. Philip lit the way with a tiny penlight. As the miniscule beam of light passed through the living room we were awestruck. Our parents had set up each child's toys in their own separate area with a name placard to let us know which area belonged to each child.
Philip gave us stern warning "don't touch anything, just look at what you got and stay quiet". Since he had the light, he illuminated each of our areas in turn so we could satisfy our curiosity. The plan was to just take a peek at what we were getting, then we could sleep peacefully and our parents would be none the wiser. Unfortunately my brother Greg had the patience and attention span of a fruit fly. As soon as he saw his name card he dove in that direction and started playing blindly. He had gotten a Fisher-Price farm set with a big red barn full of toy animals. Unknown to us at the time, the barn door was equipped with a noisemaker that imitated a cow's moo whenever the door was opened. We all froze as we heard this unbelievably loud MOOOOOOO!
Of course since it was the dead of night, the sound seemed to be amplified to the point that we felt no one could possibly sleep through such a racket. As a result, we panicked. Six pairs of feet go scrambling over the hardwood floors beating a hasty retreat to our respective rooms. This was when we learned that six kids running like crazy does make a racket that cannot be slept through. Our parents cut us off at the pass, hitting the lights and yelling "freeze"! We all must have looked like deer in the headlights as we stood there blinking like crazy. The worst part for me was that I did'nt even get the chance to see my own toys before we got busted. I don't know what the standard punishment for ruining Christmas is, but suffice it to say we ate Christmas dinner standing up that year.