Christmas Eve 2007

For the past few years we have had our Butterfield family Christmas party in the morning with a fun brunch. It has been a great change. Instead of trying to keep the kids' excitement under control until evening, we are partying at 10am. This year we went to Granny Annie's in Kaysville. We had a private room and a yummy buffet. Then we went back to my parents for presents and lots and lots of noise. I left with a new closeness to the family. We are a great bunch of people (if I may brag). My belly hurt from all the laughing. There are nineteen grandchildren of which only three are girls! It is so fun to have all the boys. They are getting older. One is married (yikes), one is home from a mission and one is in Boston on a mission. The ages go down from there with Hazel being the youngest. All the cousins are such great people. The older ones are my kids' heroes and mine too. They pick up Tre and Hazel and play and talk to them making them feel special. The older boys were getting grief from the family because they don't date, we tease but are so proud that they know a mission is coming and that is the priority. Ben says, "don't spend your money on someone else's wife". You would think they are nerdish but they are not. They are all really really good looking. Six feet is average for the 13-23 year olds. They are all great at sports and get almost perfect grades. I was amazed at all the accomplishments the kids have had. We get together every month and my kids' love it! We are very blessed to have a group of such great examples to look up to.
After the fun we headed home to relax and digest. We had a yummy dinner as a family and talked about the birth of Jesus. I was amazed at how much the kids know. Tre was watching tv and "The Wonder pets" said "Christmas is about being together", or something like it. Tre announces "Mom, they are wrong. Christmas is about Jesus". It was the best. Jaxon and Abram are understanding more and more, we had quite the discussion. Then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life". Abram was counting down the minutes until bedtime, he and Tre fell asleep right away. At about 11pm I went to check on the kids and Jaxon was still awake. I asked him if he wanted to help Santa. He was a great helper and Christmas was ready in a jiffy. He Loved it!