It's about 2 p.m., Kate is down for a much-needed nap, and we her parents may take one too if we get a chance. It has really been such a fun day. Here are some pictures and video of the highlights.

We started the morning off with Monkey Muffins, a variation on Monkey Bread ala The Pioneer Woman. I heart the Pioneer Woman. I'm cooking another recipe of hers for dinner. But more about that in a minute. Kate was thrilled with the name of the muffins, and wanted to wear her monkey pajamas and eat breakfast off her monkey plate. And it's Christmas, so she got her way.

Then we read the Christmas story and prayed and headed into the office. Bless those locking double doors that close our office off from the living room, because they allowed us to hide the tree and all its presents until we were ready to open them. I mean, we were already up at 7 a.m., and being able to get some coffee and have a little time to wake up made the whole thing much more humane.

It was such a funny experience to open gifts with a two year old. Every time she opened one, she just wanted to stop and play with it for a while, so we'd hang out and do that and exchange our own gifts until she was able to move on to a new gift. I thought we were never going to get past the fact that there were Hello Kitty stickers in her stocking, which was the very first thing she opened. Stickers! Can you believe her good fortune? It was hard not to laugh, knowing that she had so much bigger gifts waiting, but it's still adorable.

Her two big gifts were given by grandparents. Gam and Geez, my mom and dad, sent her a totally frilly ribbon and tulle extravaganza of a ballet outfit, which she promptly put on and wore until I persuaded her that it would not be very comfortable to nap in. Here is video of her opening that and the dancing that ensued:

And from her Grammy and Grandpa Wachdorf, she got a play kitchen. I love the video we got of her seeing this for the first time because of her reaction: "Awesome!" I think I say that more than I realize, but it does pretty much sum up how she feels about the kitchen. Kate also got about 6,000 pieces of play food to go with the kitchen, and she has been cooking us elaborate meals since then.

The morning was so exciting she needed a sit-on-the-couch break by about 10 a.m. because she was getting so tired. So we watched some "Annie," and then it was time for more dancing and cooking.

As for me, I got the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, which I have been longing to buy since it came out in October. I am going to have so much fun cooking from this thing. I love the fact that the cookbook is set up like the Web site, with a lot of photos of each step of the recipe process. It makes things turn out well even that first time you cook them, which for me at least is usually the time when I make mistakes and take notes for next time around. Anyway, I am loving cooking these days, and now that I'm armed with this book, you really want to get invited to my house for dinner sometime soon, because I've never cooked a Pioneer Woman recipe that wasn't fabulous. I'm just saying.

And my big gift from my sweet husband was this:

A Bissell ProHeat steam cleaner for the carpet! Now I realize there are women who might not appreciate this gift, who might even be offended to receive a housework tool for Christmas, but I am ecstatic. If I had realized before we had a child how much damage kids do to carpet, I would have ripped every square inch of carpet in our house up before Kate was born. There is not enough Resolve carpet spot cleaner in the world to keep up with it, and I am just obsessive enough that it drives me crazy to vacuum and spot clean and still have carpet that constantly looks dirty. On the other hand, it's not like you want to have a hard tile floor when you've got babies crawling and learning to walk and such. So my husband comes to my rescue, because he knows me and accepts that I'm crazy, and that the filthy carpet is making me crazier. If this thing does a good job, I might end up doing a commercial for Bissell. I mean, if it cleans my carpet, it must be good. I'll let you know after the epic day of carpet cleaning I have planned soon. Seriously, I can't even tell you how excited I am about that. Many thanks to Mike and Susan, who helped Dan pull off this surprise by hiding my gift at their house and then smuggling it to church last night. Sneaky people.

Dan is currently playing the new Super Mario Bros. for Wii game to his heart's content, playing with his I-phone, which was not a Christmas present, but is a whole other story in itself, and has a pretty sharp new Minnesota Vikings jacket to wear thanks to my awesome wifely gift-buying skillz. Since I confessed my blog crush on the Pioneer Woman earlier, have I mentioned that my lifelong and largely dejected Vikings fan husband is probably just a few more wins away from leaving Brett Favre a love note next time we're staying at my parents' house and drive past the Favre estate? (The Favres live in Hattiesburg, where my family lives. I once served Brett Favre a sandwich at McAlistar's Deli, where I had a summer job, and did not recognize him. The male kitchen staff nearly had a collective aneurysm when they asked if Brett liked his sandwich and I was like "Brett who?") But seriously, I think I might have to compete with Brett for my husband's affection pretty soon now that he's gone to Minnesota and made my husband's football dreams come true. Good thing I have that cookbook.

Stuff aside, it's really just been such a lovely thing to spend a day at home together and be thankful for our health and our growing family and the blessings God has poured into our lives this year and every year. I hope your celebrations have been filled with the deep joy of the salvation we celebrate today.

"For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying 'Glory to God and on earth peace, good will to men.'" Luke 2:11-14