Christmas Eve

Chris' parents joined us for Christmas this year. They arrived around noon on Saturday, just in time to cut out cookies and decorate them. Clara did a wonderful job of rolling out the dough. Her great grandfather was a baker, so she's a natural. I used my Aunt T's tea cake recipe that my mom and aunt make every year. They were sooooo good; I could not stop eating them. I made royal icing which hardens up a lot more than butter cream.

We took a house coloring break after baking the cookies. Robert was in charge of the interior.

Clara thoroughly enjoyed decorating the cookies. She went to town with the icing and sprinkles and no crumb was left un-iced. Or door knob. Or light switch.

Or hand.

Or sprinkles jar. Here she is with her creations. I was a bit creeped out by the ones with eyes and ended up leaving them until the very last. I guess I should've eaten them first so they would stop staring at me.

We took a couple of plates of cookies to two of our neighbors and invited one to church and Christmas dinner the next day since he's a single guy with no family nearby. Unfortunately, he had to work, so I hope his plate of cookies brightened his day a bit. After we made our deliveries, the kids got bathed and into their Christmas jammies and watched Polar Express.

There was a last ditch effort to get a sweet picture of the kids in their Christmas jammies in front of the tree which proved pointless, yet again. See, he's mocking me.

Then we read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then got them to bed so Santa could get to work. It may have been a gray, rainy day outside, but inside was a cozy, relaxing Christmas Eve with the people we love. I did miss being in Pecos for all of the Christmas Eve festivities though. They had a white Christmas complete with snowmen and snowball fights. I can't remember the last white Christmas in Pecos, so they had a special holiday indeed.