Thanksgiving 2011

So after a wonderful week in Los Angeles I finally left La Puente at around 10:00 pm and headed back to Phoenix, the idea of leaving late was to bypass all the traffic which I knew would be heave as the city to spend the holiday with their family. I still got caught in some slightly heavy traffic but it was flowing really good all the way.

It was almost 3:00 am when I got home and as always it felt good but truth be told it is harder and harder to leave Abby behind. Yes I know that will be fixed pretty soon but it just isn't happening soon enough.

After a short visit to my mom's I headed to the store to buy the stuff that we needed for our Thanksgiving feast, I was rushing as I thought they would be closing early but I should have known Walmart being Walmart would never close.

For the first time in many years we did not celebrate Thanksgiving in my house. Also my son and his family decided to branch out and celebrate on their own so this year Nikki and Loyiel were the hosts so I got ready and headed their way. I knew to get there early for the picture taking session which is always a fun time for sure.










Not only did we do our normal photo session but then my daughter Nikki decided to start practicing on her new found passion, painting faces, so she started with Michelle and then with Alexis and before she knew it the kids were taking a number to wait for their turn. Of course we took a bunch of pictures as all this happened and it turned out to be more fun than it was probably intended.

We did however had a wonderful time, complete with lots of delicious food, turkey and ham included and a plethora of side dishes. Two pumpkin and a peanut butter pies for desert completed the meal. Now the countdown to Christmas begins. Me, I am already in a Christmas mood, if you know me then you know that Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I don't mean it because of the commercialization of the holiday but for the reason of the season.

So, please allow me to start wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007

Hello my fellow bloggers, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of warmth and family unity as I believe should be. I had a wonderful time, my family gathered at my niece's house on Christmas eve and we all had a great time. There was plenty of food and presents for all.

The more is less mentality applied this year. We didn't go overboard with the presents, we had a simple gift exchange and of course the kids did get a plethora of things, the food was great and maybe more than we needed but at least we had a nice choice of dishes to eat. Plenty of deserts too.

After midnight, we all said good bye and as is a tradition of ours, my very immediate family came back home with us and spent another hour or two opening more presents, this time we usually reserve for the kids, they are the ones that have the most fun unwrapping gifts than anyone else. Us grown ups just sipped on coffee and watched them have their fun. After a couple of hours they all said goodbye and said that they would be back later for us to enjoy a Christmas dinner.

My sister in law and her family joined us later on and we all enjoyed a ham cooked by mi chica. Some of the guests brought deserts and and drinks and we all spent a nice afternoon together. To me being together as a family is what it's all about.

I remember growing up Christmas was not about gifts and Santa Claus, but about the celebration of Jesus Christ birth. We celebrated starting on December 16th with a nightly "posada" in which we would re-enact how Joseph and Mary went from door to door asking for a place to spend the night until finally they were given the barn to stay. This is a Mexican custom that I wouldn't doubt still exists today. After the re-enactment we would brake three or sometimes four pinatas that mostly had fruits inside and a few pieces of candy.

Fireworks are also popular during that time of the year, in Mexico everybody can buy and light up fireworks, they have from the mild firecrackers to the more sophisticated bombs. Dangerous, yes but a part of our custom just the same.

i really hope that your celebrations were just as fun and as good as ours was. Now we prepare to receive the new year. I really hope that 2008 is a better year for all.