On Christmas Eve morning, Carlos and the boys went up to the church for some Saturday morning basketball. I stayed home and started making the cookie dough. When Carlos came home, he jumped right in and started helping. I would not have been able to have all the food ready in time, if it were not for him.
Here are the girls and I making sugar cookie cut-outs and Carlos cutting the sugar cane for the ponche.
For our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, we had ponce, tamales and rice. Also, lots of yummy finger foods like, fruit, veggies, cookies and a beefstick, cheese and cracker platter. Celebrating Christmas Eve with us were our friends the Curleys, the Wheelers the Peñas and my sister Maggie.
After the meal, everyone enjoyed each other’s company and just sat around and talked. Next we celebrated the Savior’s birth by watching The Nativity. It is an 8 minute video that you can find on lds.org or on youtube that covers parts of Luke and Matthew from the Bible. Next we passed out gifts. Here are a few pictures from our gift giving.
A few more pictures. By this point, Ashley and Emily had already changed into their new Christmas Eve p.j.’s that they had just opened.
Me and my sister Maggie before she left.
Maggie was the last one to leave, so I had her take a quick family picture of us before she left. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve spent with friends and family. Ironically, when we have big get-together, I worry that things won’t turn and that people will not enjoy themselves. I think everyone had a good time. My husband says I worry too much….I think I must agree with him. ?
After everyone had gone home for the night. We let our kids do their sibling gift exchange. We start with the oldest child. Then we go from there, the child who received the first gift, gives their gift until everyone has given a gift.
Carlitos is the oldest. He got Emily some play doh. Well, they way it turned out this year was that Emily and Carlitos drew each other’s names. Emily gave Carlitos some Nike socks. I love the picture of Emily hugging her big brother. She was very excited about this gift exchange.
Since Emily and Carlitos had each other, that line ended there. So the next oldest child gave his gift, which was Jose.
Jose giving his gift to Ashley
Ashley giving her gift to David. It was mickey mouse p.j.’s and a package of socks.
David giving his gift to Jose. I love how they give each other hugs too! This gift was 2 pairs of Pokémon socks.
And that was the end of the sibling gift exchange. I hope that they will continue to be close to one another as they grow up.
The last gift of the night was a very special one. Emily really wanted Carlos and I to open the gift that she made at school for us. She had been wanting us to open it since she brought it home from school on 16th! I told her that we could open it and she was very happy. When Carlos and I opened it, my heart just melted! I will cherish her cute little hand print forever!!!!!