Tradition

As is our tradition, we had a delicious Puerto Rican meal for dinner on Christmas Eve, which included pasteles (similar to tamales except uses a banana and plantain masa and is supposed to be wrapped in banana leaves, instead of corn husks), pork, rice and gandules, a salad, and flan. Jason was the master chef, as usual for this meal, though I helped with the pasteles and made the salad. Our friends the Peterborgs (we knew them in Delaware, but they now live in Ohio) joined us and brought a perfect flan, which they made. Victoria and Karissa had fun with Ben and Abby again and all helped act out the Nativity.

Victoria was very sweet on Christmas morning. Instead of plowing in at some crazy-early hour, which she is perfectly capable of, she waited until around 7:30 to come in. We knew she was awake since we could hear her whispering, but she waited until she thought it was time to get up. Lucky for us, it is dark until around that time. When she came in she said, "I think it's time to get up now. I think it's light enough and I saw the neighbor outside with the dog." With that sweet wake-up call, I happily got out of bed. Victoria then proceeded to pick out the gift she had bought for Karissa at the school book fair and gave the books to her before Karissa was even downstairs! Those moments were the best gifts of all for me on Christmas! The other best gift is Karissa cuddling with me on my lap and telling me that I'm her best friend, which she does all the time now!

The rest of Christmas was typical: presents, stockings, playing, fighting, breakfast, movie, playing, bath, lunch, playing, gingerbread house (a gift from a friend), home video, turkey dinner, and phone calls all in between. The worst part of the day was that it rained and all the snow was washed away!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!