Christmas Eve 2008

Since I come from a Latin family, Christmas Eve is the big party night. We always get together as a big family and party the night away. We arrived at my uncle's house around 7PM, a few hours before we were scheduled to eat. Since we stay up so late we tend to eat late as well.
We had some delicious appetizers and greeted each other. We also set up the room where we would be spending the night. I love this tradition of spending the night - it is something I have done since I was a child and I love being in the same house with everyone.We put the gifts under the respective trees (all the adult gifts went downstairs and all the children's gifts went upstairs) and we took some time before dinner to make cookies for Santa. This year we included Roman too, since he is older than he was last year and we thought he would enjoy it. Jasmine was totally into it and was a pro at rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies. Roman did well too although he wanted to stick his fingers in the dough and you can see it in the cookies he cut out as well. Both kids had a great time.Dinner was delicious - we had stuffed turkey breast, lamb, asparagus, broccoli, fingerling potatoes and cranberry sauce. There was so much food on the plate I couldn't even begin to finish it but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My mom wasn't feeling well so she declined to join us for dinner so she could rest and try to be more lively for the midnight Christmas festivities.After dinner, it was time to frost and decorate the cookies for Santa and Jasmine seems to be showing her mother's skills in her piping bag management. She did great and was very excited to set them on the table for Santa and also a carrot for the reindeer, specifically her favorite, Rudolph. It was then time to change her into her PJ's and do another of our little Campbell family traditions and we read to her Twas the Night before Christmas and The Christmas Story. It was nice to all cuddle on the bed and we even had Titi join us for a special treat. After the 2 stories, we put Jasmine to bed so that she could be asleep and Santa could come. She fell asleep quickly and the festivities in the basement didn't bother her in the least.At midnight, we toasted to Christmas and kissed each other. Then it was time for my uncle to play Santa and hand out the gifts. He always puts his brand of humor on it and we all laugh and have fun. There are certain jokes that get repeated every year - for example, my brother Rory and his joy of wrapping the Christmas gifts in newspaper and duct tape.After everyone opened their gifts and we visited for a while, it was finally time to go to bed. Before bed, I made sure Santa visited and left Jasmine's things under the right tree and that he had his chance to sample the cookies. So after all the administrative duties, we called it a night around 2 AM.