our merry christmas

for only the second time in our marriage, philip and i stayed home for christmas. one other time, my sister and her husband brought their little teo to visit. he was deathly ill that christmas, so i'm thinking we need a do-over one of these years...

philip and i both have traditions from our families that we tried to incorporate into our own. starting with a couple of traditions from the glenn side of the 49th parallel...

we always have chinese food on the night before the night before christmas. we have a yummy little joint here that makes the food fresh to order, they give you a ton of it and it's fairly inexpensive.







i'm starting to think that my favorite - ginger beef - the way i like it anyway, is a canadian thing. i have yet to find it here, cooked crispy just the way i like it.

next was christmas eve and the nativity reenactment. we always did this as a child with my dad's extended family. mari didn't want to be mary - she was the only girl of the bunch - and i gently encouraged her, letting her know that i had to wait until i was like 10 to get to be mary! we got together with our friends, the ericksons and after enjoying a sweet spread of appetizers, got the kids dressed and ready to go.



colin: joseph
mari & dylan: mary and a shepherd



noah: shepherd
hunter: angel
hayden: lamb

we did do a nativity last year at philip's parents house that was fun too. only this year, marissa was relieved to not have a bowl in her robe. i hope the kids will want to continue these traditions.

santa was here and gone by about 11:30. in the morning, it was philip and i who were the most excited i think. we were the ones waiting for the kids to wake up! we enjoyed the traditional jimenez breakfast casserole and croissants with a sweet orange glaze. the faces on christmas morning were my favorite - and i even managed to capture a couple of them.

CHRISTMAS 2008

and now the clean up has begun. i was going to venture down to the mall today, but decided if i can just hunker down today, i might even be able to get my floor mopped too.

i hope you all had a wonderful christmas. i am especially missing my family who is all gathered in arizona this week. we are also missing phil's family today, as his mom celebrates her birthday this new year's eve. happy birthday b!

philip is here: http://www.rockinghamracewaypark.com/ for the polar bear 150 event tomorrow, but will be home to kiss my face at midnight.

happy new year everyone.



**by the way i did get a laptop but have yet to blog from my bed. you'll be the first to know when i do!**