feel the magic

this weekend, i wrapped presents.
approximately 6 hours worth of presents.
exactly 3 Lifetime Christmas movies worth of presents.

we started while the boys were napping, but clearly, no child naps this long.
as such, bern took over child-distraction-duties while i chugged along in the basement.
we told the boys that mommy was working on some "Christmas magic" in the basement.

anth, being anth, understood that the "magic" was the secret of not knowing what their presents were.
he begged me to tell him what just one present was.
i refused.
he pouted accordingly.

benny, being benny, wanted in on the Christmas magic.
as such, he kept trying to get into the basement.
the stairs down to our basement have a giant opening on one side, so if he went any more then two steps down, he would be able to see all of the "magic."
so, bern kept him away from the door. 
except for one time, when i had to dash up the stairs as i heard the door opening in conjunction with benny's voice coming down the stairs. 
this resulted in me essentially tackling a three year old at the top of a staircase with a very small landing. 
awesome. 
if you had been there, you would have seen me laying on top of Benny, with both of our heads barely sticking out of the doorway leading to the basement.
and benny stretching his legs as far into the basement as he could yelling, "i can feel the magic with my toes! i have magic on my toes! i can fly!"

he then stood up and walked into the living room.
and did not, for your information, take off in flight.
surprisingly, this did not upset him all that much.
he looked at us, shrugged his shoulders, and still completely giddy, said, "it's not enough magic to fly, but my toes feel tingly."
realistically, his feet probably were tingling.
because he lost circulation from his adult-sized mother pinning down his pint-sized person.
but sometimes, belief is a beautiful thing.