As the clock struck midnight, I was still asleep. I don't know how, but I just knew that Santa was at my house. I hoped that Santa would give me a puzzle that had lots of different animals on it like I had asked for. I also asked for a lot of other things. I was sure that I wouldn't get all of them. Some of the things that were on my list were: a bat, a small keyboard, a watch, a drum, a football, a soccer ball, a CD, a Star Wars book and some of its figures. Just remember, these were only some of the things that I had asked for. I hoped that they would all be wrapped in fancy wrapping paper with multi-colored ribbons splattered all over the paper too.

Well, as I was saying, I had heard a noise during my sleep. I was absolutely sure that it was Santa Claus. I was wide awake now. I could hear Santa munching on the food I had left him. Then I quietly went down the steps, stopping at each one to make sure that no one was there.

When I got to the bottom of the steps I gasped. There was Santa Claus putting presents under our Christmas tree. I ran behind the Christmas tree as fast as I could. Santa seemed too busy to notice. I crouched as low as I could.

I could see Santa's face as he bent down to put presents under our tree. I could see that at least three presents had my name on them. My sister got at least five. I was sure that Santa had more presents in his sack for me. I knew that he shouldn't have any more presents for my older sister. He reached into his sack for one more present, and I was sure that it was for me. I was right! It had my name on it.

Then Santa wasted no time and headed for the chimney. I had always wondered how Santa got into people's houses. At least in our house, our fire is always crackling on Christmas Eve. Now this was when the real story began.

Usually, people's fires had burned out by the time Santa had left their house. Our fire burned out every Christmas eve except this one. Santa blew on the fire as hard as he could, hoping that it would burn out. (I don't suppose Santa was that smart. Didn't he know that in modern days like now, most people had electric fires?) I was about to tell him, but I just didn't have the guts. If he knew I was out of bed, he still might take back the presents and put me on the bad list.