Christmas Eve 2007

After a very busy few days, we decided to take the 24th off from theme parks to enjoy a more restful day and to have more time to do Christmas stuff. After breakfast, we headed to the near by outlet mall since John had not done his Christmas shopping. John took Ansley and Bailey to the electronics store and I took Emily to Eddie Bauer. Once we were done with those two stores, we all walked around for a while since it was such a nice day and hung out some at the boardwalk/fountain area they had. After returning to the condo, having lunch, and naps, we let the girls open their Christmas presents from us. Starting this year, we decided to let the girls open their gifts from us and each other on Christmas Eve so that they were not lost in the shuffle of Santa. All of them had a great time oepning gifts, including the little ones. Ansley and Bailey needed help from Emily, but loved playing in the paper. Emily got a wooden clock and some new Christmas jammies from us, a princess radio from Ansley, and a Leo conductor's wand from Bailey. Ansley received a stuffed rabbit from Emily, and jammies and a Toby the Tot Bot from us. Bailey also received a stuffed rabbit from Emily , and jammies and a Twilight Lady Bug from us. They really enjoyed playing with their new toys. When Emily was ready, I took her outside so that we could sprinkle her reindeer food. This was something they made at school where they took oatmeal and sparkles and mixed them together. The sparkles were suppose to attract the reindeer and the oatmeal was a snack for the reindeer. Emily thought this was really neat. The two of us went to the grass outside the condo and careful sprinkled little bits around. She wanted to keep some for a while, so we headed back in and her and John later went out since she wanted to put the rest out. After dinner and baths, we dressed all the girls in their new jammies, loaded them in the car, and we were off to find some Christmas lights. At first we were having trouble finding some, but then we ran upon a nice neighborhood that had lots of lights. As it was getting late, we returned to the condo, put Ansley and Bailey to bed, and then I read Emily various books, including Twas the Night Before Christmas and one about the Christmas story. They we put out the cookies and milk for Santa before bed.