Post Christmas Days 2008

Ok so I'm still trying to figure this whole blog thing out. Need to remember to 1) Post the blog entry, 2) include a title and 3) maybe something picturesque and pretty.

Well Christmas week was a flurry as usual. It started on December 20 with our annual tamalada. It's become a great family tradition to get everyone together to make 60 lbs of tamales. This year friends and significant others were part of the bola. Every year my sister Mima and I think we're going to get the recipe from my mom, and every year we end up for the most part being part of the production team. This year Mima was late, I was busy prepping and A's boyfriend F got the recipe. What's up with that? Mom had to leave early to do posadas and we were left trying to figure it all out. We had great fun, the tamales were fantastic, chicken, spinach, cheeze and chile and cinamon. Yum, yum .

This week also included the anticipation of having all of G's family (14 brothers/sisters) in town, it was great . The sisters-in-law agreed to meet on Dec 24 at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast in SJ. While not all 11 got together 8 of us did make it and I so enjoy their company even if it was for a short while. ME made menudo, A brought a big egg tortilla, and we had Pete's coffee, my favorite, fruit salad, pastries, and who knows what else.

So every year there is a big deal in our family regarding the "December birthdays". Three of my siblings, my niece and sister-in-law celebrate their birthdays in December, the 9,12, 23 and two on the 24th. It's a big deal. We generally have a party sometimes we even have mariachi. I love those times. This year we didn't really plan anything special but my sister Mima made pozole and we went to her house to celebrate by eating, drinking wine and of course doing karaoke in Spanish and English. It's so funny and fun - mom and dad love to sing - I say it's the time they don't fight or argue. So the evening ended with us all going to midnight mass to celebrate the birth of Christ!!! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas morning - I can't believe it. We got home late and didn't go to sleep til after 2:00 .a.m. Both the kids were up EARLY, before 9:00 a.m. wanting to OPEN GIFTS. Every other day they sleep in and I cannot make them wake up. On this day I wanted to sleep, I was so tired from the night before and they were fully awake. What a laugh. I was not ready with all the gifts. This year G and I decided we were not going to go out and buy all the gifts we usually buy. We decided to give a donation, this meant alot to me. The desire to change the life of one child was so strong. One of my daily prayers is to have God touch a child's life and this donation will do this. It also made me reflect on what is most important. And so we didn't buy alot - and I realized that even though we didn't buy too much we still had alot to give.

Christmas at mom and dad's - lot's of food, all the family and significant others, our special prayer circle to bless us all and the food we were going to each. Some funny family videos of the kids when they were younger breaking a pinata. Watching this video allowed us to savor moments gone by in such a loving manner. I am grateful that dad has put so much of our special moments on video to savor over and over again.

Christmas at G's mother's house... Quite a stimulating experience, we counted about 56 family members there was no room to sit, stand or even breathe. The gifts were piled high. There must have been 500 gifts in that house. I am not kidding! The kids got a special gift from their tio R - $200 each for their stamp collection (that's another story), A got a two day part pass to her happy place - Disneyland!!!!!! Wow, these kids get it all. I truely hope they realize how lucky and grateful they need to ge. F went with us and joined in a great gag gift game. This tradition is all Cortez, I learned it here with this family and look forward to it every year. Last year for whatever reason we didn't play. This year it started a bit slow, but then reved up. Thirty people played and guess what, i was number 30. I decided to keep the game going by taking my sister in law's bowl and spreader set - she wanted to get rid of it. That started an avalanche of stealing and taking, it was funny, some of the gags included - laptop speakers, Homer Simpson Xmas singer, Raiders cap/mask combo, a book by Barack Obama (what I wanted) a cd with 16 different versions of La Cucaracha (this is truely a Cortez style gag). My brother in law ended the game by picking the last gift - a set of bikini jungle briefs. LOL, LOL, LOL! We laughed so hard. I"m still laughing. Ok so that was all one day.

Day after Christmas - we slept in till very late. then we all went to ME and J's house in the afternoon to see the visitors off. A couple of my sister-in-laws and I watched The Christmas Shoes. I had just finished reading this book two days before. Three of us were crying, sobbing, sniveling, it was such a sad yet touching story. My other sis-in-law didn't cry, she can't be part of the ya-ya sisterhood until she does. We'll see.....

Ok - Again I ate so much that I felt rather sick when I got home.

Saturday -A and A left to go to Sac. The house is so quiet without them. So G and I took off to take in a nice dinner, came home watched a movie in bed and just lounged!!!!

Sunday - Spent the afternoon helping my friend S. Her husband passed away over a year ago and she needed help clearing out his suits. She was not kidding - the may had soooooo many suits. We took out 13 bags full of suits, shirts, pants!!!!! The man had more clothes than any woman I know. But now S has a closet for her things. She needs prayers. I pray for S - Lord give her strength, courage and someone who will love and take care of her because she definitely deserves all your love and caring.

So that was my week off - today - back to work. I'm tired! Oh yeah New Year's is right around the corner.