On Christmas morning, my brother and I weren’t allowed out of our rooms until 7am. For years, my brother would come down the hall and get me. Together we would go into the living room to see what goodies Santa had brought. It was always a cornucopia of wonderful items, which we would then, one by one, rush back to our parents to show them- hence the 7am rule.

When we were older, I would wake my brother, but we still always went out together. It was what I missed the most the first year we didn’t spend Christmas together.