Your tale of Ana and your awakening is quite magical Clive. My parents were older and no such thing would have been tolerated, much less encouraged. If I'd had kids, I think I would have done the same as you.
What a wonderful start to Christmas Day.
When i was a kid, for my brother, sister and I, it was a tight regime, we did as we were told and we spoke when we were spoken to...
except on Christmas day.
That was ours.
Father Christmas would visit magically (as he does) and from the moment we awoke, which was often three o'clock, the day was ours to play with our new toys (often one toy each) but with three of us they were always communal games.
We also had the sock we put out filled with tangerines, nuts and some chocolates.... sometimes with small toys too so we always had to empty them out just in case.
Ana might be spoiled rotten, I'm sure my father would have thought so if he'd been alive to meet her. But, she's a good girl and as an only child her only "want" is companionship. She realises a brother or sister is off the cards now, so we try to make up by inviting her friends to stay which seems to work quite well.
Hence my attitude.
I can't imagine anything much worse for a kid than to be surrounded by adults all the time, being told what to do and to be sensible. Especially Ana with an ageing father, not like the other kids in school with their 40 odd year old dads.
We do just OK between us IMO.
