On Christmas day itself, we woke up at our usual early time and we all went downstairs. The girls jumped on their stockings and enjoyed the small presents like socks, stickers, candy, sticker-your-own-toothbrushes, and gift cards to panera. Ewan got a book and a new winter hat. We had some breakfast and after what I’m sure seemed like an eternity to the kids we had everyone together and got to enjoy opening presents.

This year Josie got really into making gifts from ‘Santa’, she found it hilarious to write question marks instead of our names in the from to be coy. She had fun playing the game with us all, and Celia is still not quite clear on the whole thing. She recently told me she wished she had gotten some presents from Santa (that someone else had gotten her), but couldn’t quite explain why. Santa brought them dress up dresses this year.

After a fun morning we headed over to Jordi’s aunt and uncles house, Ana and Carlos. They had the whole family over and cooked us a great big meal.

Ita-mami and all the great grand-children. Yep three of them are ours, Jordi is the second oldest of the grandchildren.

After our nice meal we went outside and hung out at the playground just across the street from our house and I hounded people for pictures and tried to take some nice family shots. It was a very relaxing way to spend Christmas day and get to see everyone and reconnect.

Somehow I see this happening more than once.

Christmas Eve is always a big party at Tere and Gilberts house. Vanessa was in charge of most of the cooking but I wanted the girls to help out too. We now reveal that child labor was used to make dinner! The girls snapped the beans.

Because I had brought a cooler down to Florida, we took the opportunity to bring some cookie dough with us. Josie helped bake and roll it out the day before.

Christmas eve itself got dark very quickly and so I didn’t get to take many pictures. A few of the girls in their special outfits plus Ewan and Ben!

We had a very enjoyable evening, dining and opening far too many generous gifts for the kids! Celia was not fond of eating in the dark so I had to bring her inside to eat dinner where there was light to see.

Way back in November, for the whole month, we sit down at dinner and list off the things we are thankful for. We try to get a new one each day and try to even write them down for each day. Sometimes we have to play catch up for a few days, and sometimes we let small children fudge with the ‘no repeats’ rule. It’s always a joy to hear what they have to say to be thankful for. This year almost every day Celia said she was thankful for a ‘healthy baby Ewan.’ He certainly is the biggest change we’ve had this year. We also had a bad stomach bug this month so it reminded us all to be well thankful for our health! And those around us! Here’s their lists.

Celia:

1. Mommy
2. Red Sox
3. My ABC’s (the art we do to discuss/learn the letters)
4. Nice house to live in
5. Healthy Ewan
6. Healthy Papa
7. Healthy Celia
8. Healthy Josie
9. Healthy Daddy
10. Ice skating
11. Quebrada
12. Nice Mommy
13. Fun Pama
14. Good Dinner
15. Three birthday parties!
16. Museum trips
17. Throwing leaves at Connor
18. Healthy Ewan
19. A mommy to love
20. Daddy working hard at work
21. Watching TV
22. Dollhouse and toys and games
23. A new baby brother and a healthy daddy
24. New Warm House (umm who got a new house?)
25. Daddy helping me while sick
26. Our new car
27. Bronwyn and Blake
28. Kind Josie
29. Silly Mio
30. Mommy not stepping one me when I fall down (ummm what??)

Josie’s list

1. Sister whom I love
2. Watching red sox from office (we saw the victory parade from Jordi’s office!)
3. MacKenzie’s party
4. New presents
5. Good dinner
6. Fun Ewan
7. Eating M&M cookies
8. Long weekends
9. Watching the movie
10. Dinner with Zach and Ethan
11. Ice skating
12. Nice mommy
13. Ezzy looking so cute
14. Mommy coming to school
15. Making good cookies
16. Going to the museum and learning new facts
17. French fries and Liam (a boy in her class)
18. New books
19. A mommy to love
20. Daddy working hard at work
21. Watching TV
22. Ewan feeling better
23. Celia worked out her frustration smoothly (i.e. Celia didn’t hit me when she was mad)
24. Nice house to live in
25. Mommy making good soup
26. Thankful we have money to buy each other presents
27. Irsa (girl from school)
28. Silly Mio
29. Warm house
30. Warm clothes and electricity

Jordi and I offered up some other boring things like the health of our parents and families, clothes, housing and food to eat, each other and our fun times as a family. We are blessed!

This year for Christmas we were down in Miami, away from the snow and cold. I am still having to adjust to a non-cold Christmas even after eight(?) years of doing it!

We spent pretty much our entire visit just trying to soak up time with the loved ones so everyone got to meet Ewan and hang out together. The newest members of the family, cousin Ben only 9 months old, and Ewan spent a lot of time together, sharing toys. You get lots of pictures because what’s more cute than one baby? two babies!

We had a very short photo session with the two of them outside and it was hilariously ineffective. Ewan was easy, because he can’t move and just sits there, he has no choice. Ben is constantly on the move though. We’d put him on the blanket and he’d crawl the wrong way, no matter where we put him, he’d crawl a different direction, immediately. Finally once we put them on the grass they were both very curious about what it was that they were sitting on that they sat still to examine it. And then laugh at us making funny faces at them.

It was also warm enough that we went swimming! Well those of us from Boston did, plus Ben and Sonya.

And we weren’t even the only ones in the pool! Ewan liked swimming and didn’t seem to mind the chilly water. Josie is tall enough to walk around the shallow end just barely now and Celia enjoyed being carried around the pool.

Celia gave me a few moments of pictures today. I feel like I got a glimpse of how she’ll look as she grows up in the strong sun.

From our family to yours! Hope you have a day of peace and love!

Yesterday we got out into the snow we got earlier this week. Snow with the three kids, school, and a baby is making it for a rough winter. Plus our neighbor was out of town this week too. We did find someone to pay to help thankfully too. But for the girls snow is fun still. Today I stood on the porch carrying Ewan on my back in a carrier under a coat to get him to nap while I supervised them playing in the snow. They started with shoveling the sleds full of snow, then climbing up and around all over things. Josie asked to jump out a window, I said no. Later on they played ‘snow rescue’. Celia pretended to fall down and break her leg, and Josie put her in one sled and  then the other to treat and rescue her from it.

Plus one non-traditional snow angel.

We are behind with the Christmas baking. Usually I try to spread it out some more. Today I/we made four kinds of cookie dough. Only baked off one sheet, the rest is for later. Plus we made fudge earlier this week and handed out most of it. I’ve got two more kinds to make, not too bad for a days work. I did finish the shopping up a bit earlier than usual, so score on that one!