Monday was a day of errands and grocery shopping for me and Ricardo graciously took care of the kids. I came home between errands to pick up Diego around 11:30 so we could go out for a mother-son date night. His request was Circle Sushi so that's where we went! We had a special time and enjoyed the yummy food.
On Tuesday we hung out at home all day and got things ready for our Christmas Eve dinner in the evening. We had 26 people (including lots of kids!) for dinner and it was so much fun. We invited everyone to come at 3:00pm so we'd have time to play games, play outside and just enjoy hanging out before an early dinner. I cooked a huge turkey, mashed potatoes, dessert and provided appetizers and everyone else brought side dishes and we ended up with a delightful spread. It was the first time ever that we've not traveled or had family in town for Christmas so we thought it would be nice to open our home to those without plans and it ended up being such a special time. The house was chaotic with so many kids running around, playing board games, etc, but it was a blissful chaos :)
After everyone left, we did our last advent reading and let the kids open one present under the tree...their new jammies. They were thrilled to go to bed in their new jammies.
My turkey helpers
Diego came to our room at 6:50am on Christmas morning and I told him he had to wait for the youngsters to wake up, which wasn't long. We all headed downstairs together and they were amazed to see their stockings overflowing with gifts. Ricardo lit a fire, we put on some music and they tore into their stockings (which they know are filled by us, not "santa"). They had not had stockings for the last two years b/c of travels so they weren't quite sure what to expect, but said they didn't imagine they'd be so great. After stockings, we had a delicious breakfast of chocolate croissants, egg casserole and fruit. Ricardo took them outside to play with some of their new toys (it was 27 degrees out!) and they loved it. Gwen had spent the night with us, but we let her sleep in and she woke up to have breakfast around 9:30. We made a mad dash to get ready for church in 20 minutes and made it there by 10:30. The church service was really wonderful. Keeping Christ at the center of Christmas is so important to our family and going to church on Christmas Day was just a perfect way to reflect on what that truly means. Pastor Paul randomly chose Diego to help him with a demonstration at the front so Diego had to speak in a microphone and read slips of paper and he did such a great job. We were happy to see him up there!
Very excited to open her stocking gifts!
Every time Marco would open something he'd say "Cool!"
Yummy croissants!
After church we headed home and had leftover turkey for lunch. We opened the presents under the tree after lunch and then we played board games for a couple of hours. We went out for a long walk in the afternoon and let the kids climb trees, throw leaves, shoot their new potato guns and just took our sweet time without a rush in the world. It was dreamy! When we got home, everyone stayed outside to play and I came in to prepare cheese fondue for dinner. The kids had never had fondue before and we thought it would be an easy and special meal to end our day with. They liked it ok, but of course thought the chocolate fondue was amazing! We put the kids to bed around 7:30 and I followed shortly after and went to bed at 9:30...I was worn out!
Skyping with Grandpa!
Mima, Tia Majo and Tio Robi having their celebration in Florida.
Here's Diego at church
Playing Blokus
Enjoying the fondue dinner
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