Christmas Eve Frenzy and Festivities

I had a great and busy Christmast Eve. The main part of the day I busted my hiney with cleaning, laundry and facing the crazy people at Safeway to get some last minute stuff I needed. It was a mad house out there in the public world... traffic, parking and lines were crazy! It felt good to get my house clean and in order though and to be on top of things again. We celebrated Christmas with Robert's family on Christmas Eve like we always do. I made some beef enchiladas and we also had my MIL's tamales... yum. Then we opened gifts and the kids had a blast. Baily and Joaquin got some great stuff from their Abuela, cousin Emely and our sweet neighbors aross the street. Kinda funny... the neighbors couldn't remember what Joaquin's name was so the tag said to Xavier. It was cute and we got quite a laugh out of it. So now we can add Xavier to the list of names for my son to be called... lol. After the games I had to feed my baby and the everyone else played an intense game of Catch Phrase while my MIL watched the little ones. Everyone seemed to have a great time and their was definitely a strong family spirit of love felt. I loved it! That's what Christmas is all about. After everyone left Baily and daddy finished decorating the cookies for Santa and put them out with some Mountain Dew. Apparently, as Robert informed us, Santa's not a big fan of milk and likes Mountain Dew better. Then after that Robert, Baily, Andre and Cande all watched the Polar Express. The video is really dark but this is what Baily and her daddy do everytime the hot chocolate song comes on in the movie... the hot chocolate dance. It's priceless! I went to feed the baby while they were watching the movie and ended up passing out myself. After Baily was asleep and Robert got started on wrapping presents I finally got up to help him. We made sure that all the presents were wrapped and under the tree and Santa ate his cookies and drank is Mtn. Dew. I think Baily was just as excited as Baily would be about giving her her kitchen set. It was so sweet. When I was a kid I remember thinking that Christmas must be no fun when you're a grown up but I have to say I love Christmas as a parent... it's even more magical!!