A Truly Wonderful Christmas

Our Church Missionaries eating with us Aaron helping to clean up after mixing cake batter!

The tradition in our family is to open presents at midnight on Christmas eve, which is really Christmas day if you think about it. We invite friends and family over to have a tremendous feast of pozole, tamales, turkey and anything else we can think of to eat :) We had fun chatting with the Elders from our church, eating, dancing and just having a great time. We especially liked to watch the snow fall right outside our window while we were having dinner. It was nice to have my sister and her family here visiting from Ft. Hood and my mom and grandma visiting us from Laredo. My grandma is such a blessing to have around, especially since the children can have good memories of her being here for Christmas. She loves, loves, Christmas! She couldn't wait for us to open presents and every night she would walk over to the big Christmas tree in the dining area and stare at the twinkling lights. At midnight all of us tore into our presents. This year, Sergio and I told the kids that they would only get 3 presents each. They understand times are tough with Sergio's cleaning business being gone and him starting new adventures. We are very fortunate to have such understanding children. They each asked for 3 very inexpensive items. On Christmas Day the kids get to check their stockings which are usually filled with candy, snacks and other small gifts. We are also fortunate that we had accumulated a lot of points on our bank debit card so that we could trade those points in for gift cards! KA-CHING! Those came in real handy ;) On Christmas Day we go out to see a movie then for brunch at IHOP. We went to see OLD DOGS. The kids enjoyed it. We had some yummy french toast, pancakes, and hot chocolate for brunch. Afterwards, we just came home and relaxed. Overall I feel truly blessed by my Heavenly Father for allowing me and my family to have a roof over our heads, food to eat and vehicles in which to get to work. I am thankful that I have a good job and am mindful of so many others who have SO much less. I hope that my children will learn good lessons about life and being humble and that Christmas does not come in a box. Christmas is about being together with family and friends and sharing our love with others. Ours, was a truly wonderful Christmas!