The Keene Family

We had a nice Christmas Eve at home as usual. I started the day by wrapping gifts from midnight to 2 AM. That was not how I planned the day to go! Then I got up Christmas Eve morning and started on our two-day menu of yumminess (see menu). We had a bit of relaxing time together but I spent a lot of time in the kitchen... which I enjoy. We had a lovely dinner on our beautiful china with new accents from Pier 1. We went to six o'clock candlelight service at church... in the snow! I got this wonderful picture of JT and Haley on our way out... I just love this one. After watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and eating apple pie, we tucked the kids into bed and filled stockings. Then Jim got out his new moose mugs from his work gift exchange and we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in style.

'Twas the week before Christmas, and there is fun to be had. First, the kids decorated gingerbread houses at home on Friday night while I got everything ready for their second ski Saturday the following morning. My family went skiing without me again on Saturday. They had a wonderful time, and then we scooted off to Gena's birthday party and family game night immediately after they got home - they didn't even change out of their ski thermals! Sunday we celebrated John's birthday with brunch after church too. It was a full weekend! Then I volunteered at JT's school for their gingerbread house building party. It was fun and easy - third graders are a piece of cake. :) Here he is with a sweet friend from his class. Wednesday was a half day and they were finally free from school for two whole weeks! Here we are celebrating in the car at the bus stop. Of course, really they will miss school, their teachers, and their friends... but everyone loves a br...

This year, our neighborhood friends group decided to switch our progressive dinner from a Friendsgiving in November to a Festive Friends in December. We started at the Drew house for drinks and appetizers and the kids got lots of energy out as they wrestled, ran, and practiced carrying objects around the house on spoons... a game they came up with on their own.   We hosted the main course again, and my Pioneer Woman sweet potatoes were a top request. I made two kinds of soup, salad, and rolls but made sure to have sweet potatoes on the side. I used all disposable products this year, so everyone could relax. We have three houses' worth of dishes to clean up, after all!  We ended with dessert at the Lee house, and the No Bake Snickers Pie was my favorite. We also managed to get a group photo before 8 PM melt-down! We are thankful beyond words for neighbors who have become our friends - the women, the men, and the children. That is a lot of relationships ...

I had back-to-back Christmas dinners this week. Monday was our church's women's Christmas event. I invited my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-laws, my niece, three ladies from my neighborhood, and a friend who is new to our church. We ended up with quite a fun group! The food was good, the speakers were wonderful, and someone from our group even won a door prize. Tuesday was my work Christmas dinner. We met first as a leadership team to sign Christmas cards for all of our consultants, do some planning, try on our new jackets, and just hang out at our senior partner's new house. Then we had our newest team member and another friend of our group join us all for dinner at Bis on Main in Bellevue. The waiter joked that Darrell (the only guy present) was living large with all these lovely ladies at his table for the night! After a 3.5 hour meal, lots of laughs, and hugs all around, we all headed home. I'm blessed to have a job I love, and part of what makes it ...

Ever since JT started making dinner last year, Haley has been asking when it would be her turn. Then she got some American Girl cookbooks and she really wanted to do some cooking! We finally worked out a day that made sense, and she made the yummiest chicken noodle soup and cheesy garlic bread for us!

Haley and I went to see The Nutcracker performed by Evergreen City Ballet in Bellevue last weekend and it was very well done. We went last year too, and I honestly think this year's show was even better. The sugar plum fairy was amazing! First, we had lunch and played the dot game on the ferry. Then we arrived at the show and got settled in our awesome seats (so glad I booked early this year). During intermission, Haley got a comb tiara and we shared an Oreo mousse dessert bar. It must have been quite an adventure because Haley fell fast asleep on the ride home! Then, this Wednesday, JT had his school Christmas program. Grandpa and Grandma Cole, Grandpa and Grandma Keene, Aunt Gena, Jim, Haley, and I all went to watch! JT was the cutest little reindeer of all, I can assure you. He hates being in front of an audience, and he was full of anxiety for weeks ahead of this performance. But like good parents, we forced him to go and he survived. He was so gla...

Our new carpet was installed! We started planning for new carpet upstairs about a year ago. Well, really, when we bought our house and saw that the carpet was original. While surprisingly nice for 26+ years of use, it was ready for a replacement. This fall, I picked out carpet and scheduled installation for eight weeks later (not on purpose, that's just the wait!). When the day finally arrived, we were very excited. We spent the weekend prior moving all of our things from the upstairs to the downstairs. Fortunately our installation included moving furniture, so we didn't have to do that. We just took the drawers full of clothes and stacked them up downstairs. The kids were amazingly hard workers and did all of their own room prep. Now we have soft, thick carpet that is clean and feels awesome under bare feet. Hooray!