The Holidays in Review

Edited to add: New Year's Menu.
These Holidays were extremely busy, but fun. As you already know, we spent Christmas and New Year's with my husband's family and I had the MLA in between, but before it all started I was busy for several weeks because I was in charge of the Christmas program in church. It had been scheduled for December 16, but had to be re-scheduled for Dec. 23, which made everything even more hectic. (Note: you can click on the photos to make them bigger)

We have a singing group and prepared a special song and the children sang as well, then we had several soloists. There was a dinner afterwards and we distributed gifts to the children and also community children that we got through Toys for Tots (I had to pick them up, wrap them, etc). We weren't even planning to stay for dinner since we wanted to drive down to Maryland as soon as possible, but in typical Brazilian fashion, the program started way late and we stayed. It was fun for the kids because a friend had them make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and their boxes. They turned out cute and I was impressed to see how my oldest didn't eat any candy until his house was done. The little one, on the other hand, didn't help, but was very interested in eating candy and got all dirty with the marshmallow cream, peanut butter, and chocolate frosting.

We headed to Maryland on Sunday (the 24th) morning. It was a long day since I was helping in the kitchen non-stop all afternoon. The meal planned was extra special and delicious, but a bit "experimental," since some of the things prepared by my sister- and brother-in-law were being cooked by them for the first time. My BIL decided to prepare salmon, which was delicious, and my SIL made two kinds of "Rondelle" (rolled and filled pasta) from scratch, including the pasta dough -- with fillings of chicken for the non-vegetarians and heart-of-palm and artichoke cream for the vegetarians. We also made the dessert -- yellow and chocolate cakes filled with cream cheese lemon pecan and chocolate filling and frosted with condensed milk frosting to match fillings). There was also rice, vegetables, asparagus, a vegetarian roast, Brazil's leading brand of panettone (an Italian Christmas "bread" with candied fruit and raisins), Brazil's leading brand of guaraná (a soft drink), Italian gelatto, and plenty of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I'm very sorry that I didn't take photos of the food, but by the time it was ready (after 9:30 p.m.) everyone was so famished that we didn't even have time to set the table properly, and we only took the required family photos because if we didn't there wouldn't be any "record" of this Christmas celebrations.

In Brazil they open the presents on Christmas Eve, after the Christmas supper (ceia, we call it), but because of the children we decided to do it in the morning like the Americans. Everyone was up between 7:30-8, but we didn't get started until 11 because we wanted my youngest BIL, who was in Brazil, to watch everything online and it took forever to set up the connection. He did get to watch and even figured in the family photo, on the computer screen. There were TONS of presents and barely room to see the fireplace:

But we lit a fire anyway:

Opening the presents was fun, particularly because my oldest (4 years 9 months) was so excited, not only about his own presents, but also about everyone else's. It will be great when all four cousins (and any additions) are old enough to enjoy it fully. I went overboard this year and bought many presents for the boys -- most train themed. A huge 150 piece Thomas set (plastic, motorized) -- you can see his reaction in the photo below-- and a generic wooden set (photo below too) with several additions (a large shed, a bridge, a stop sign, a "rotary"). My youngest got trucks (two garbage trucks and a small trailer truck) and a Bob the builder set, and both got several DVDs.We enjoyed being together with family on the 25th and 26th and came back home that night tightly packed in the car because my BIL and SIL came with us since she was going to the MLA with me. On Friday, my poor SIL had a accident with our car. I felt terrible sorry for her. You can read what happened at her blog. On Saturday my husband went to pick up my youngest BIL in New York (with a rental car, just in case) and in the afternoon my oldest BIL and his family arrived, so the four brothers were finally together. On Sunday, while I cooked lunch and prepared for the New Year's eve dinner, my husband, kids and the two youngest BILs and wives went to Kelly Drive to run and bike. My SIL is a runner and her husband caught on and has since ran a marathon and a half marathon. My youngest BIL, is planning to join them on Houston's half marathon next Sunday -- I wish him luck! So they went to run and meanwhile my husband took the boys on the bicycle trailer and my youngest SIL biked in my bike. I was very jealous because we planned to do that all summer and ended up not going -- I have yet to bike on Kelly Drive :(

My father- and mother-in-law were driving from Massachusetts after their afternoon church service, so we planned a very late (3-4 pm) lunch and they arrived at 11:30 p.m., just as dinner was being served! The kids had taken extra long naps and were still awake, so we got to take a few full family photos, right around midnight -- an important thing, since my BIL and SIL from Texas flew back home in the morning of the 1st and the full family was together only for a few hours. Edited to add: I prepared vegetarian "chicken" Stroganoff, zucchini lunch (a kind of zucchini "soufflé"), rice, steamed broccoli salad, a tossed salad (we had salad on Christmas too), guaraná, and for dessert a dish with a condensed-milk based cream topped with fresh strawberries and melted chocolate (yummy!) and two kinds of Brazilian panettone: chocolate and regular.

On New Year's day we just hung out and the brothers and their father played games -- their favorite thing to do together. My youngest pretended to play Sudoku with his uncles:
And my oldest played UNO with the grown ups for the very first time and he actually won several rounds! For a few days all he wanted to do was to play cards with me, but now he has gone back to playing with his trains. Oh, and talking about trains, it was quite easy for my husband to look after the boys during the MLA because they played with their new train sets all day long!Well, that's it for now, this post is too long already, but I hope you enjoy it, as well as the photos. I'm still planning on doing the second and final post about Christmas trees, so that should be up soon :)
P.S. If anyone is curious to see the other photos I talk about, send me an email and I can give you the link to my family photos website.