Christmas Joy

Christmas Eve for us was fairly busy. In the morning we made Christmas Cookies (Santa can only have freshly made cookies!). Then it was off to the Gym for our favorite weekly workout class (and to work off all that cookie dough). Next up was church, where I got my first initiation into ushering... even getting to play secret service with an earpiece. Luckily, the 2p service was fairly light and I didn't have to do too much.. but I'll be much more prepared for the next time I volunteer. Then the family came up and joined me for the 3:30p service, which was packed out. Afterwards, it was off to try out the outside seating at the new Patrizzios (yes, the heaters really do work out there). Finally, we came home for the traditional family picture by the tree. This year was a bit of an adventure trying to get both the girls and Bailey all looking at the camera... but we found one decent picture.
The night included the usual Butler activities, including the girls giving each other a gift, setting out cookies and milk (the request this year was for Strawberry milk) for Santa, and putting reindeer food on the lawn for when the Big Guy stops by. Speaking of Santa, we spent the entire day tracking him using the noradsanta.org positioning plugged into Google Earth. It was very cool and let Abigail learn a bit of Geography.

Christmas morning started WAY too early. We heard some 'fussing' in Emma's room via our monitor that we still have turned on, and I found Abigail in Emma's room reading a book to her... at 4:20a. Emma had her princess crown and wand out, and they were having a good ol' time. Nothing like starting out the day with 2 tired kids. They ended up sleeping until 7:11a... but it took jen and I a while to go back to sleep, so it wasn't long enough. We let them come down and open presents (which doesn't take long with the 2 of them). So far, Emma's favorite gift has been her bike (she had been riding it all over the house waiting for the weather to be nice enough to ride outside) along with the pink poodle that she got from her sister. Abigail has spent a lot of time playing Cooking Mama and Nintendogs on her new Nintendo DS Lite. They've played with a lot of other presents but these are the big hits so far.
Bailey got into the Christmas spirit as well, getting a box of toys. She was soo excited that she would grab a toy and run off like she had something she wasn't supposed to have. After starting up the Turkey Breast in the crock pot for our Christmas dinner, we headed out the door to Mesquite to have lunch with Jen's family.

After a wonderful lunch, we let the kids dive into the presents. With 4 grandkids between 3 and 6, it took no time at all to open all the gifts and cover the floor in wrapping paper. We socialized a bit and then headed back home. Later that afternoon, my dad and step-mom came over for more gifts and dinner (hence the turkey breast). This was our first attempt at a turkey of any kind and it really turned out well. It was a 7 lb breast, cooked 1 hour on high and 7 hours on low. As the recipe said, the meat fell right off of the bone, making my job as the carver quite simple. As we waited for Grandma and Grandpa to show up, Emma tested out her new bike.
We opened more presents and had a very delicious dinner. All in all, a busy but exciting day.