The night before Christmas Eve, we realized we were hungry for Christmas cookies. Grandma Cole to the rescue! She whipped up a batch for us to decorate together.
On Christmas Eve, the kids and I did some dessert preparation. (I also made a cheesecake with little Santa hat strawberries for Grandpa Keene’s birthday the week prior, so I’m including it here!)
Chocolate cream pie 
Apple pie 
Cheesecake
Then we played. And we waited. (This photo of Maverick with his bunny is not staged!)
In the afternoon, we walked over to Grandpa and Grandma Cole’s house for a Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchange. We don’t normally see anyone on Christmas Eve, normally a time we reserve just for our family. But since we have limited our gatherings to only seeing grandparents for the holidays, we felt we should adjust our plans accordingly. We also adjusted our meal plan… in the past I’ve cooked a fancy dinner at home on Christmas Eve, and then we go to church as a family. With Jim at work and seeing grandparents instead of dinner at home, I suggested we order dinner from a local restaurant. So I picked that up the day before and we heated it up at the Cole house.
We also opened gifts and got to spend some time together before leaving for church.
The kids and I volunteered to help with child care during the first service, and then planned to attend the second service together (with Jim, if he could make it – and he did!). We had a great time hanging with toddlers and I always enjoy a candlelight service. Instead of taking a photo of all four of us in front of the tree, I went for just the kids this year.
We came home, ate apple pie, watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (original!) and put Jim to bed. Then the kids and I ate Christmas cookies and watched The Santa Clause, which they’d never seen before, and stayed up late.
The Keene Family 