Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas. Santa made a visit to our house last night and left some real treasures for Emily: a dress-up chest to keep all her tutús and fancy clothes in, a PlayMobile doll house, a basket for her bicycle, some yellow (her favorite color!) tights and a few other treasures.  She's been playing all morning.  The gilttery shirt/dress was something my mom brought over here for her, but didn't get a chance to give...so Santa took advantage to "give" a little something extra in her dress-up box. ;)

Christmas has been really nice this year.  Last night, Christmas Eve, my mother-in-law was the only one to come over and eat with us.  She arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon, just right after Emily had gone down for her nap and so ended up sweeping my whole patio looking for things to keep herself busy (bless her, she cannot hold still!) until her granddaughter woke up.

When Emily did wake up, they headed out to the park and then abuelita and Emily entertained themselves in the living room for the remainder of the evening while I got dinner ready and whished a Merry Christmas to several friends on the phone.  I was even able to chat with my dear Miriam for about an hour and a half.  It was wonderful to be able to get things ready with no rush and without Emily getting her hands into everything.  I was so inspired, I even decided to whip up some brownies for dessert...at that point Emily came into the kitchen and when she saw the bowl of batter, there was no way she'd go back to the living room with abuelita! ;)

Angelines came home for dinner around 10 o'clock and then stayed home.  In past years, you may remember that she has a shower and heads back to open for the night...but Christmas eve night is not such a big bar night as New Year's Eve and for the past few years she's been saying that it's not worth it to open and "next" year she'll close. This was finally the year.  I set the table with our good china and we had a lovely salmon dinner with mashed potatoes and veggies accompanied by the customary jamón and cheese.  There were brownies and whipped cream for dessert.  Delicious.

This morning was especially fun since Angelines had been able to get to bed "early" and so wasn't totally exhausted.  She was really able to enjoy the magic of discovering gifts under the tree and in stockings with Emily. :)  We played for a while then had breakfast and headed to the bar to clean up before making our way to Tita Toñi's house for Christmas day lunch--another seasonal tradition.

Now I'm getting a few chores done around the house and will probably do a bit of work for my Montessori classes.  I am a bit behind and I need to use these days of vacation to get caught up and so must do a little bit every day or you know what will happen...!  I also want to make gingerbread, but maybe that's not in the cards for today.  We'll see.

It's so wonderful to be on vacation!  I feel like I've needed this break more than I've ever needed a break from work before!  I am basking in this moment of looking ahead to two whole weeks stretching out before me full of possibility... I know that inevitably the time will speed by and I'll be back to work all too soon and probably without having done even half of what I'd like to have done, but for now I am content to sit and contemplate all the many possibilities...and if I feel like just sitting and blogging, that's a perfectly wonderful way to spend an afternoon as well!