Teenage inhibitions
At 13, Gabriel doesn't do excitement. Teenagers like to keep their cool, their emotions in check, even at Christmas.
He was pleased with his presents, thoroughly enjoyed the variety of food on offer and really loved being off school for a couple of weeks – but there were no obvious signs of real excitement. It must be quite tiring keeping everything so tightly wound up.
Isaac is now 11 and has no such teenage inhibitions. He wears his heart on his sleeve and couldn't hide his emotions if he tried.
His birthday is three days before Christmas, so the festive season is one big party for him, and boy, does he enjoy it.
He loves getting presents, is always very appreciative of what he gets and also really enjoys having people round to share or play with whatever he gets.
Isaac even gets excited by my birthday, which is a fortnight after his own. He insists on waking me up early to sing Happy Birthday to me, and then helps me open my presents.
My wife had to encourage our eldest out of bed to wish me happy returns. He then made his own return – to bed.
I can't imagine Isaac becoming similarly sullen or monosyballic. Do all teenagers suffer from these traits, I wonder, or do some manage to get through these difficult years with a smile on their face?
After 20 years working on evening newspapers I can no longer lie-in.
Whether I'm at work or on holiday I wake up at 6.15am and find it almost impossible not to get up.
Which means, to the annoyance of my wife, I'm normally in bed by 10pm.
Gabriel's default sleep setting is the opposite to what mine has become.
During the Christmas holidays he was normally the last to bed and on one occasion he didn't get up the following day until 1pm. I was mightily impressed at such dedication.
He has to be up at 7am at the latest for school, but this does not stop him from being late to bed.
The change between holiday and term-time this week has caught him out however.
He'd got well into the groove of really late nights and really late mornings and going back to his old routine has been very painful.
He hasn't been too pleased at all at my cheery attempts to wake him up at 6.30am.
Can't think why.
So what were the top presents of Christmas 2008? Which gifts went down best with my boys?
Well, with Isaac it was money. He saved enough from birthday and Christmas presents to buy a Guitar Heroes game for his X-box and hasn't been off it since.
One of Gabriel's favourite gifts was actually given to me. I was given a book on how to make simple curries for my birthday, and I think he's read it through already.
He's also composed a shopping list and we're making our first curry from the book this weekend.
Wish us luck!
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
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