As Christmas is coming,there are presents to be bought, cards to be sent, and rooms to be cleaned.Parents are ___1___ with difficult jobs of hiding presents from curious youngchildren. If the gifts are large, this is sometimes a real ___2___. OnChristmas Eve, young children find the excitement almost unbearable. They aretorn between the wish to go to bed early so that Father Christmas will bringtheir presents quickly and the wish to stay up late so that they will not missthe fun. The wish for gifts usually proves stronger. But though children go tobed early, they often lie awake for a long time, hoping to get a short ___3___at Father Christmas.
Last Christmas, my wife and I successfully hid a few large presents in the storeroom.I ___4___ the moment when my son, Jimmy, would ask me where that new bike hadcome from, but ___5___ he did not see it.
On Christmas Eve, it took the children hours to go to sleep. It must have beennearly ___6___ when my wife and I went quietly into their room and beganfilling stockings. Then I pushed in the ___7___ I bought for Jimmy and left itbeside the Christmas tree. We knew we would not get much sleep that night, forthe children were ___8___ to get up early. At about five o’clock the nextmorning, we were woken by loud sounds coming from the children’s room — theywere shouting excitedly! Before I had time to get out of bed, young Jimmy cameriding into the room on his new bike, and his sister, Mary, followed closebehind pushing her new baby carriage. Even the baby arrived. He moved ___9___the hands and knees into the room dragging a large balloon behind him. Suddenlyit burst. That woke us up ___10___. The day had really begun with a band!