Merry Christmas!

I really cannot believe that Gabby's first Christmas has come and gone already! We spent the holiday with Enrique's family. We had a traditional posada on Christmas Eve at his sister-in-law's house with all his family and some friends. A traditional posada begins around 11 p.m. A group of people are outside the house and a group of people are inside the house. Everybody has a little candle. The candles get lit and all other lights, music, etc. in the house are turned off. The group outside the house starts singing the posada song and the group inside sings back....this goes on for a good 10 minutes or so, then the group outside is offered a chance to come inside and celebrate and eat. The group outside enters....the first person to enter is carrying a small porcelain baby (representing Baby Jesus) and everyone sings some songs to the baby, takes a turn holding it, gives it a small kiss, and the last person places the baby into the nativity scene. By this time it is just after midnight and Christmas has begun! We then did a gift exchange (we had drawn names...you know the drill) and then sat down to eat. When all was said and done it was about 2 a.m. and we finally went home to sleep! We didn't take any of Gabby's Santa presents with us because we celebrated Santa style once we got back to the city and my mom and my friend George arrived. They flew in on the 27th and on the morning of the 28th we opened presents and the sort. Gabby got some blocks, books, dolls, and a kitchen with some dishes. She didn't really get what was going on, but she sure has enjoyed her stuff. Speaking of stuff....that is what I have focused on for so many Christmases....buying stuff for people. Will they like it? Do they already have it? Until this year. I didn't send anything back to Utah. We didn't buy presents for everyone in Enrique's family. I didn't get everybody at school presents. We didn't buy Gabriella presents galore. We chose carefully for our daughter. We celebrated. We laughed. We created new memories. We spent time together. We enjoyed the holiday....it was amazing. Hope your holiday was amazing, too.