Christmas Eve

Christmas is such a wonderful season we like to drag it out as long as possible. (And blog about it weeks after the fact.) First we had Christmas with my siblings since my sister, brother, and I were not going to be together on actual Christmas Day. Next up was Christmas Eve. I headed out with the kids to meet up with other women and kids from my family for our traditional Christmas Eve lunch... at the mall. It started out maybe 15 years ago when someone in my family decided that come Christmas Eve, we were going to be done with all our shopping and settle down with a cup of coffee at the mall and laugh at all the shoppers who were not done with their shopping yet. Coffee turned to lunch. Laughing at last minute shoppers turned to ignoring them and socializing. No matter how you look at it, it is a nice time out with some great people.

After the kids (and Greg) caught an afternoon nap, my parents headed over for Christmas Eve dinner. On the menu was a traditional Guatemalan Christmas Eve feast featuring tamales.

We also had pollo en pina (chicken and pineapple), arroz blanco (white rice), corn, and some tres leches (three milks cake) for dessert. My dad had never had tamales before. He ate up a couple of them without complaint but when I asked him later he said he will probably stick to American food.

My parents moved in their stack of presents while the kids got on their fancy clothes.

Then it was time to tear into them! Maya thought they were all for her.

Soon enough, a present that was actually for her was uncovered.

She was very proud.


The kids were free to attack their stockings without the pup sticking her nose in there.

One gift each kid got was a little flashlight. They were a highlight of the evening. So much so that there was fear that no other presents would be opened. Marcus kept shining his flashlight on his gifts for close inspection.

Will mostly ran around the house getting the pup to chase his flashlight beam. The flashlights became such a distraction from gift opening that I resorted to bribery. "You can have your flashlights back after you open all the other presents." Hey, we had more things to do.

There were gifts for some other people too. Like my mom.

And me.

And Greg, although I missed getting a picture of him. And my dad got this fabulous hat.


We headed off to church. We followed that up with some snack's at a neighbor's house in my old neighborhood. Then we headed home to get into our pj's, put out some treats for Santa and his reindeer, and settle down for the reading of "The Night Before Christmas".