Christmas 2009

(click on collage for a larger view)

The plan for Christmas '09 was originally to stay home since J-rod was scheduled to work.  Fortunately, when a good friend from work realized J-rod was scheduled to work BOTH Thanksgiving and Christmas, this friend offered to take J-rod's Christmas shift so J-rod could have at least one of the two big holidays off--so nice (thank you C!!)!

First row of collage:
Since my dad hadn't been fairing so well health-wise and since J-rod's family would be in town, we decided to take a quick roadtrip to L.A. for Christmas--3 fun-filled and busy days!  Before driving out on the 24th we let the kids open up their BIG presents from us.  To keep C-sta company on the long drive, we gave her a baby doll which as you can see from the look on her face in the 3rd and 4th pictures, she was VERY happy with! The boys were also very happy with their presents: personal, portable, DVD players complete with carrying cases and a couple new DVD's to watch on the long drive (to replace the 5yr old portable DVD player that had recently died out on us.)  Thank you awesome Black Friday sales!!

Once in with L.A. with my family, we got to visit with some of my siblings and their kids as they were finishing up their visit with our dad.  After our visit we got to eat a yummy dinner, thanks to my mom and her amazing skills in the kitchen!  My mom makes THE. BEST. standing rib roast--EVER!  Not to mention the traditional Guatemalan Christmas Eve dinner she makes every year: "Paches de Papa Quetzaltecos!"--an acquired taste for most, but for me and J-rod...YUM-O!!  Christmas Eve at my parents house just isn't Christmas Eve without my mom's paches! (Oh...for those who might be wondering, 'paches' are somewhat like tamales.)

Second & Third rows of collage:
Before putting the kids to bed on Christmas Eve, we all opened the traditional first present--new jammies!  Christmas morning the kids came out in their new jammies to open the presents left by Santa in their stockings: new Nintendo DS Lite's for the boys and another new doll for C-sta (this one is almost as tall as she is!).

After spending the first half of Christmas Day with my family, we headed out to spend the rest of it with J-rods's family at G'ma M's house.  It was so fun to see everyone that had come to visit there!  Especially all the CUTE new babies born recently that we hadn't met yet.

The big kids had a lot of fun taking the traditional rides on G'ma's power electric chairs before settling in to play with their new toys--some played with their DS's while others had fun with flashlights! C-sta quickly recognized what a Bumbo is, realized she missed hers like crazy, and hijacked Small Paul's new chair that he had just gotten that morning!  She hadn't sat in her Bumbo for at least a couple months, but once Aunt L set out Small Paul's, our silly li'l girl wouldn't get out of his for anything!

Towards the end of the night G'ma S asked the boys to give us all a little concert, to which they eagerly obliged.  We always have a good time when we visit at G'ma M's, not does she always have such fun things for us to play with and yummy food to enjoy, but we always get to see so many wonderful members of our family!!

Once we returned home a few days later, we finally let the kids open all the presents that had been mailed to us by family and friends, as well as a few others from us that we didn't take on our roadtrip.  Thank you to all for your kindness and thoughtful gifts!!  Not only were we bless with many nice presents for Christmas, but we were grately blessed to be in the wonderful presence of our family, feel their love, and share in the making of many wonderful memories!

Up next: a new tradition?...Fishing, The Day After Christmas!