The six-month housemate

Thirty-two

THIRTY-TWO

I woke up on Christmas morning to someone banging loudly on my door. Grunting, I checked the time on my phone. 6:30. Bloody hell, I thought, tossing my covers aside and getting up. It was still dark out, and it felt like the house had been transported to the North Pole over night. How perfect! I wrapped a blanket over my shoulders and opened the door.

"Merry Christmas!" Tom whispered excitedly, nearly tackling me in a hug.

"Merry Christmas!" I answered, hugging him back. He was wearing a Santa Clause hat, an accessory Vanessa had brought for everyone, 'for the pictures'. "Why are you up so early?" I yawned.

"To wake people up, duh!" He stated matter-of-factly.

"Tom, it's not even 7am..."

"It is in other parts of the world! In France..."

"But we are not in France, kiddo." I interrupted.

"Oh come on, lazy bones, it's Christmas! It's not just any day!" He whined. He started going towards Alex's bedroom, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Easy little guy!" I tugged him into my room and closed the door behind me. "Let the others sleep a bit, we went to bed way later than you did."

"But the presents are waiting!" He pouted.

"You know what? I had this tradition with my sisters I could share with you... If you're not too impatient." I winked.

"What is it?" Tom tried to look uninterested and aloof, but his voice betrayed his curiosity.

"Why don't you get your stocking and I'll show you." He sped out and was back a couple of seconds later. We took a seat on my bed.

"Now what?" He asked.

"We need to guess what's in it. Let me show you." I spilled the contents of my stockings and grabbed the first packet that fell on my lap. "Okay... So it's flat, square-ish and not very thick, so I guess it must be a CD. Now I haven't been listening to many artists lately, so I think it could be either a Taylor Swift album, or Maroon 5, but it could be something else." I put the parcel back in the stocking. "Understand the concept?"

"Yep. Okay, my turn!" The kid grabbed a present. He shook it lightely; it made a rattling sound. "I guess this is Lego Star Wars." He said, dropping the box beside him.

We continued the game until we eventually ran out of presents, which brought us, or rather, the others, about half an hour. After that, letting them sleep would mean either opening the presents without them, or eating the few Ferrero Rocher that we'd found in the stockings.

From what Tom told me, his family didn't usually sleep that much on Christmas morning; they were all up early to enjoy the beginning of the day, prepare lunch, and eventually, in the mid-afternoon, they had a siesta. However, this organisation had been compromised by the fact we'd been a little unreasonnable the night before, going to bed around 2am. Tom and Hugo had abandonned us at some stage, being too tired to keep up with our singing, and also so Santa Claus could finally deliver his precious presents.

Of course, everyone in the family knew that Santa didn't exist (sorry to break it to you, people), but it's always more magical if you don't witness the setting up of the presents, and discover it the next morning, the only light being the flicker of the electric garlands. The living room had been a merry gift-wrapping workshop, everyone hiding behind a piece of furniture so no one would see the packages. It had been very fun, but lack of sleep definitely was the aftermath.

As Tom ran around knocking on the doors or just plain breaking in to bedrooms to shake everybody up, he spread enthusiasm which achieved waking everyone up, and we made our way downstairs to the tree, where the pile of presents awaited.