christmas eve

here's the pics from christmas eve down in miami at my brother and sister-in-law's house. we had a great time eating, singing (ask mauricio about that one), and chatting.

here the girls are singing a song with nona

this picture cracks me up! they are supposed to be singing but do they look like they are? is savannah yodeling? sarah didn't want her picture taken and gracie, i think, was trying to make a run for it! merry christmas! ( i'm smelling christmas card pic for next year)
gracie with her aunt lisa
mauricio's cousins came from homestead and texas to pay a visit. guess what his cousin's and his counsin's son's name is? (mauricio!!!!!)

the traditional christmas eve pajamas! the girls requested "old-fashioned" nightgowns this year and i found them, FINALLY, at macy's. and 50% off! score! gracie just took her's off yesterday! (i did wash them once but they were back on right as they came out of the dryer) let's see, that should have cut down on the laundry but it didn't! those that were left at the end of the party!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

class in session

apparently our dogs need a bit of an education in gracie's eyes! she was outside reading stories to them that she had written! too funny!

these are just some random ones we took out on the patio, but don't they look like they want to join the class?

life sized gingerbread boy!!!!!!

one of savannah's teachers did a really cool science project with the kids. a life sized gingerbread boy! savannah was SO excited the moment she found out about this project. once they started it she came home EVERYDAY and told me, in detail, what they had done that day to work on the gingerbread boy. needless to say she was a bit enthusiastic. here are the pics of the finished project.

do you think there is a bit of candy on that thing? can you see the drool coming off of their faces? each student got to take home a considerable slice of the dude. talk about starting the holidays off with a bit of sugar!

poor gingerbread boy lost his head. he should have made a run for it!

snow in south florida?

okay, no we really didn't have any snow here. just the south florida kind. at the MALL! before you enter to see santa there is a giant snow globe that you have to go through and you guessed it... there is a ton of fake snow raining down on you so you look oh so full of dandruff for your picture with santa! the girls clearly LOVE it as you can see by the pics below.

back to bethlehem

since moving up here to palm beach we have found this lovely presentation of "bethlehem" that is put on by a local church. they have shepherds with real sheep, shops, guards, etc... everything is supposed to be as authentic as possible so all the people stay in character the whole time visitors are passing through. it is really cool. this year we had mauricio's mom and some good friends with us. too bad it rained most of the time but we still had a great time.

are they in time out?

savannah looks like she should be one of the residents in bethlehem.

these people were doing a demonstration of shabbat.

i think we can see how gracie feels about the whole situation.

sarah a bit taken by the roman soldier.

after you travel through the whole city there is a nice tent with hot cocoa, hot cider, cookies, popcorn and candy canes. and free pics with a roman soldier. i think the kids liked this part the best.

as you can see by mauricio's shirt the guys got a bit wet.

i will one day get the rest of december posted! hopefully tomorrow!

decorating the tree

here are some pics of the kids decorating the tree. it was late so i didn't take any of us having cocoa afterwards by it admiring the lights. but that is what we do everytime after we decorate. sometimes we even have to turn the a/c down a bit when it's tooooooo hot for hot cocoa in december! but it's all good.

dad putting on the angel. which, btw didn't fall down on top of gracie this year. last year the entire tree fell after we had it decorated! on top of mauricio and the angel went flying and hit gracie in the head! it's funny now.

our pretty tree.
here i was playing with some effects on my camera. thought they were fun.

the taco bell tradition

so every year it is our tradition to go get our christmas tree and then go to taco bell afterward for dinner. one year it was really late and we ate in the car! that is how serious this tradition is! mauricio and i started it the first year we were married because at that time we had NO money and tacos were only 59cents! so we spent like $6.00 and ate dinner that year after we got our first tree. we spend a bit more than $6.00 nowadays, but we still have as much fun as we did on that first christmas.

this year we decided to go eat first and so by the time we got to lowe's it was closing time and we barely got our tree and we totally forgot to take any pics! at least we got these good ones at taco bell. oops! but we did score and got a 9 ft tree for $27.00!

gracie had fun posing in almost all the pics.

having the first bite of dessert empenada together.

christmas baking

we love to bake at our house during the holidays. we always make certain things and add a few new things once in a while. we always do muffins, brownies, fudge, cookies and our yummy caramel snack mix (no photo since we haven't made it yet). here are a few pics of some that we have made so far this year. these will be going to teachers, bus drivers, friends and neighbors.

yummy brownies!

cranberry mini muffins
FUDGE!
okay heidi, i must say that it was your grandma that got me hooked on fudge! i remember those thanksgivings at her house with much fondness. for the fudge! and the other good stuff and company too!

chocolate chip walnut banana bread. this is what it should look like.

this is what it shouldn't look like. look closely and you will see that a certain 7 year old, who will remain anonymous, poked holes in all but one loaf yesterday! i was SERIOUSLY angry to say the least!

here you can see the crater better!

sarah doing the muffins. licking fingers is almost as good as licking the bowl afterwards.

today i went over to my awesome friend's (marybeth on the left) house to bake some goodies with our other awesome friend, sally. we had a great time and made some good stuff. the time flew way too fast and we ate way too much sugar! thanks for the chocolates and the nuts!

this is what i made. i really don't like any other chocolate chip cookies except homemade ones.

marybeth's grandma hil's pecan puffs. they are soooooooooo good!!! we are adding these to our collection this year!

sally did ginger cookies (left) and south african spice cookies (right). they were very yummy and marybeth pointed out that they look professional. they look like they belong in a magazine or something!

here are all the chefs with our little helper gracie! she had fun eating the dough and the cookies.
the lovely chefs. no sally is not assaulting me with the mixer! thanks again marybeth! i had a blast!!!!