Christmas Eve

For me it wouldn't be Christmas Eve if there wasn't a big party. We typically get together with my side of the family and the past few years we have been going to my uncle and aunt's house for the festivities and spending the night there.
We did this again this year and the family was there along with Marcia (who has been joining us for the past 3 years) and we invited our friends the Durrants as well.
We left our home on Christmas Eve afternoon looking spotless as we had invited some of the family to come over for Christmas lunch the following day.We all had a great time hanging out in the basement (eating) playing, chatting and having fun together. It is nice to be able to spend fun time together. We do this because we all stay up until midnight and having a late dinner helps pass the time. The food was excellent as always. We had some delicious pasta and some great dessert! :)After dinner, we put the girls to bed. They were both tired and ready. We have started a fun little tradition the past few years by reading Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Christmas Story to Jasmine before bedtime and we have had Natalia come in to join us for the stories and the family prayer. We love having her share that time with us and Jasmine loves having her Titi in there with her.After dinner, the Durrants had to leave because little Jack needed to go home to bed and so we said goodbye to them and took a few pics.We did some dancing while we waited for midnight and I had fun watching my mom and grandma dance together.At midnight, we all hugged and kissed each other and wished everyone a Merry Christmas and then sat down so that Santa (Tio Robert) could hand out gifts. He always makes it fun and tells lots of jokes while he does it both in Spanish and in English. Sometimes he even peeks inside of bags to check out the gift before he gives it to the person - when will some people learn that when Tio Robert is giving out gifts, it is best not to wrap them in a bag!After we opened our gifts, it was pretty late and so we went off to bed. I ensured Santa arrived and took some pictures of the girl's things under the tree.