We had a very nice Christmas full of family, food, wine and presents.

On Christmas Eve, both Andy’s family (Ray, Eileen, Erin and Chrissy) and my family (Jane, Marv, Anna and her husband Derik) as well as my friend, Junie came over to our house for dinner.

Andy fired up the Argentine Grill and made excellent tri-tip while I took care of things inside of the house.  Luckily Erin and Chrissy came early to get some Belén time in before the grandmas arrived and totally saved my bacon helping me get everything ready.  I thought we were totally ready because we had the meat and rolls nearly prepared, but it turns out there were a million things to finish up including setting the table, baking the butter rings, feeding Belén, baking the rolls, etc.

Belén and I in front of the dinner table

Everyone was able to see Belén before she went to bed.  After that, the wine started flowing and the conversation became lively.  We stayed away from the controversial topics like politics and focused on things like heifers  and Deep Throat.  Don’t ask.

After dinner, Andy’s inner pyromaniac had an opportunity to surface as he stoked up the backyard firepit.  He claims this is a new Christmas tradition for our family.

Christmas morning started at 7:30AM with Belén’s daily alarm clock.  We tried to coax her back to bed for a bit more sleep but she was not to be convinced.  I texted my parents we would be opening presents soon and they said they were on their way.  Anna and Derik were already at our house as they had planned to stay the night.

Andy’s side of the family did not do gifts this year and instead donated the money to charity (thus the heifer conversation).  My side of the family did a gift exchange where we each bought for one person with a maximum allowance of $100.  The match ups were: Derik bought for Andy, Anna bought for Mom, Andy bought for Dad, Dad bought for Derik, I bought for Anna,  Mom bought for me and everyone bought for Belén.

Belén opened her gifts first and scored some really cool new things.

My favorites of Belén’s include the Soothe and Glow Seahorse above (from Auntie Erin), goat hand puppet that sings the song (one of my FAVORITE songs EVER) from the Sound of Music puppet show, The Lonely Goatherd (from Auntie Anna and Uncle Derik),

some cute clothes from Auntie Chrissy, baby plate and bowl from Grandma and Grandpa Hoobing, an adorable scooting bee from Grandma and Grandpa Sparrell

as well as a couple Santa bought for her, Sofie the teething giraffe and the cat sock stuffed animal.

Then the gift exchange started.  My dad received nice hunting clothes disguised in a Victoria’s Secret bag.

Derik received everything he could possibly need for BBQing.  I gave Anna new winter running tights along with the Yaktrax I gave her last week.  Mom received a spa package.  My gift was baking-related with air bake cookie sheets, cooling racks and a nice new apron my mom made.  Andy has a very innovative sweatshirt with a built-in face shield and gloves made by Loki.

Derik's gift

Andy and I exchanged gifts afterwards and I was thrilled to receive a new, screaming fast, HP laptop.  It is sweet, but we still have some kinks to work out with interaction with our homeserver.  I still cannot believe Andy bought me such an enormous gift.  The camping sleeping pads and clothing I purchased for him seem pretty weak in comparison.  As always, had asked for nothing, so I don’t think he was disappointed though.

After gifts, Andy whipped up eggs benedict and then Anna, Derik, Andy, Belén and I watched the movie Hangover.  We were lazy the remainder of the day until we had to go to dinner at my parents house with mostly the same crowd as the night before.  We were all pretty exhausted and after stuffing ourselves yet again.  We concluded Christmas evening watching the movie UP which was incredibly delightful.

It was a great first Christmas for Belén and we already realize how much fun the holidays are going to be with a baby/kid in the house.  We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

What was your favorite Christmas gift you received??

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