The Keene Family

After lunch on Christmas Day, we headed to Jim's parents house for gifts and dinner. It all starts with stockings... And then gifts... Haley was super excited to get her own stereo and some new CDs! Working on her new sewing kit before dinner JT got a remote control helicopter from Uncle Matt and Aunt Jennifer, which continues to be the hit of Christmas. He got to fly it outside before dinner!  Grandma Keene made dinner for 14 people. Each person had a napkin beautifully folded into a tree and a cute candy cane place card! After dinner, we had a birthday cake for Jesus and we sang. Grandma Keene had made the cupcakes and cake a few weeks ago at our house and put them in the freezer until Christmas Day. We wrapped up the evening with a dice game. I love this photo of Grandpa Keene. :) The kids were tired by the time we got home that night, and we all slept in a little the next day!

We have a tradition that we stay home, just us, on Christmas Eve and morning. Well, we go to church, but other than that we stay home. And I love Christmas Eve service, so that's a highlight. Getting ready to leave for church   When we got home from church, we had a fabulous dinner (roast, cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, honey-thyme carrots, sour cream rolls) and watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and ate homemade apple pie. Yum! The kids got new Christmas jammies in their stocking on Christmas Eve last year, and we did it again this year. It was really important to JT that we pray before we open our gifts and stockings on Christmas morning. He said he wanted to make sure we were still focused on God, not what we were getting. Sweet Haley prayed at bedtime Christmas Eve that she would still remember what was important about Christmas even while she got some gifts. Love it.  We had a great time gift opening this year, especially since this was the first ...

Christmas Eve. My favorite church service of the year! We dress up, take photos, feel merry, and celebrate the arrival of our Savior. I recently thought about how devastating that must have been for Jesus, to leave the perfection of heaven that he had enjoyed for all of eternity to dwell in an imperfect world for thirty-three years. That in itself is a sacrifice, yet we so often dwell only on the ending (and new beginning) at Easter. In our advent devotional recently, the kids and I read about how God chose an angel to announce the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds. The devotional pointed out how incredibly special that angel might have felt, to be the one to announce the glory of the Lord living among men. How often do we feel that special, to be sharing the amazing story of Jesus Christ with those around us? Quite a challenge this Christmas season. I recently had a woman dressed exclusively in red and green tell me she was offended on behalf of her Jewish step-brother when...

We have started a new tradition with my family in which we gather the weekend before Christmas for decorating cookies, opening gifts, and enjoying good food together. We started the evening singing Christmas carols with Preston on guitar. We played some Rummy before dinner as well. After dinner, we settled in for cookie making. Of course, Grandma already had the dough for sugar and gingerbread ready to go. We just had to roll, cut, and decorate! The kids got to pick two colors each for frosting.   In the morning, we were treated to Grandma Cole's cinnamon rolls. If you've ever had amazing cinnamon rolls, just imagine those - but better. Then it was time for some gifts. JT got a lot of vehicles! Preston actually asked for an ironing board. :) One of our favorite gifts was JT's new felt mat of Steamboat Rock State Park. It is one of the cul-de-sacs. Grandpa Cole made it to go with all of JT's recreational vehicle sets (he loves coll...

I should write Winter "Performance." Having seven four-year-old girls do any sort of organized performance basically elevates their instructor, Miss Diadra, to sainthood. It was mostly us watching class, and a chance for Haley to wear a tutu and a special hair piece in her bun (holly berries!). Still, she was very excited. Jim even took off work to come watch. Getting the giggles out before class Enjoying her tutu The men, happy to watch ;) Stretching out Waiting for directions Jim brought Haley pink carnations for her big performance! The "performance" consisted of the girls lined up in two lines, marching toward each other in the center, holding hands with a partner, and walking up to the front, then running back to a circle and doing a curtsey. Most of the girls needed lots of direction, and at one point Miss Diadra said oh-so-sweetly, "Does this sound familiar?" as she reminded someone where to go for the bazillionith time. ...