We love our Christmas Traditions and are super lucky to have so much family close by to share the holidays with. On Christmas Eve we have a big feast – we bring whatever food we want, no holds barred 🙂 We like to think that we are letting in a little bit of Udine’s Guatemalan culture but either way we always have a lot of yummy food. Tomales, special punch, poppers, chicken noodle soup, breads, chips and dips and of course some cream puffs, cake, and pie. Mostly we eat all night BUT we do let the kids dress up and act out the birth of Christ and we decorate cookies for Santa which is always a hit. This year we went to Michelle and Udine’s house and Mom and Dad came and Emily brought her kids.

Mary ( she was so excited to get to be Mary), Inn Keeper and Shepherd.

2011 Cast: Luca, Packer, Micah, Kiah, Diego, Cali, Benji, Lalo, Mia

and Rose - "the crying sheep"

Cookie Time:

Cali

Packer

Benji and the big boys

We came home at a decent time to get our new pajamas on and leave a note for Santa. Benji made sure to leave 9 carrots for each of the reindeer. They each left their favorite cookie for Santa and a glass of milk. The excitement on Christmas Eve is SOO much fun. Our kids are the perfect ages for anticipation and pure joy. This is definitely one thing that I will miss when they get older.