midnight
That day the presents for the two families , wrapped , tied and labeled , were piled upon tables in a room closed against Lucette and me . At eight o'clock the doors were thrown open and we filed in , the elders going first , and each one of us sought for his own gift among the heap of white parcels . For me the moment of entry was an exceedingly joyous one , and until I was twelve or thirteen years of age , I could not refrain from jumping and leaping like a kid long before it came time for us to cross the threshold . We had supper at eleven , and when the clock in the dining room struck the midnight hour , tranquilly , in harmony with the sound of its calm stroke , we separated in the first moments of those New Years that are now buried under the ashes of many succeeding ones . And on those evenings I fell asleep with all my gifts in my room near me . I even kept the favorite ones upon my bed . The following morning I always waked earlier than usual so that I might re-examine them ; they cast a spell of enchantment over that winter morning , the first one of a new year .