Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) Dinner at Home - The Menu

This year, since I had the cute baby, everyone came to VA to spend Christmas with us. My mom, older sister, brother and niece flew in from CA. Maki's parents and brother are already in VA so the family was nearly complete. All we were missing was my nephew Rusty, who graduated last May and moved to Tokyo. I was so happy not to have to travel with a 6-year old and infant!

Our family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We call it Noche Buena, which literally means "good night" in Spanish and typically refers to Christmas Eve. Ever since I can remember, my family has attended midnight mass, followed by dinner and opening of presents. Because of the kids, we no longer attend midnight mass. This year, we attended the 5:00pm mass.

I knew it was crazy to host Christmas Eve at our house, but we did it! We had 25 people, including my family, Maki's family, close friends, neighbors and a co-worker. Everyone helped. Maki, my mom and brother helped get the house ready. My younger sister made the ham and desserts. I made the sides. Friends brought wine and soda and more sides. Our Christmas Eve menu consisted of:

• Cream cheese, pesto and sundried tomato dip
• Brown sugar glazed ham
• Roasted vegetables
• Mushroom and chestnut dressing (stuffing)
• Beet and goat cheese salad
• Fettuccine with brie, tomato and basil sauce
• Pear and arugula salad
• Plain and spicy enari (tofu stuffed with rice)
• Tiramisu cake
• Cheesecake
• Biko 
• Chocolate and caramel crackers
• Chocolate
• Hot chocolate
• Spiced cider
• Beer, wine, soda

Yum! We ate a lot of the food, but surprisingly, very little of the wine was drunk. I guess we're all getting older and drinking a lot less! Too bad I forgot to take pictures of the food!

Baby Marcus John Gets Baptized

Since everyone was going to be in town for Christmas, it made sense to have MJ baptized during the holidays. Thank goodness our parish priest was able to squeeze the baptism into his busy holiday schedule!

We asked our friend Eileen and my brother Alex to be MJ's godparents and they said they'd be honored to do it. Great! I told Eileen that being a godmother (ninang in Tagalog) is a serious thing with the Filipinos; she's now a member of the family!

MJ's baptism was a small affair, just my family, Maki's family and a couple of friends. The baptism was held on Thursday, December 23rd at 2pm, an odd time for sure, but it worked for us and the priest. The church was beautifully decorated for Christmas so the backdrop for the baptism was wonderful.

After the baptism, everyone came back to our house for a small meal. Goring, our nanny, had made pancit bihon and pancit palabok, two traditional, Filipino noodle dishes. Yum and thank you, Goring!

CJ's First Words and Other Word Things

I'm writing this down only so I won't forget it in the future.

CJ's first word was dada.  His next word was "gabugee" for garbage.  We had no idea what he was saying until we went for a walk one day.  CJ kept pointing at things on the ground and saying "gabugee."  So that's when we figured out that "gabugee" meant garbage.

CJ used to call me "mama jsa" and Maki "dada maki."

He called us mama and dada for a long time, but today, it's mommy and daddy.  Sometimes it's mom and dad.  I miss mama and dada.

When CJ and I would read his "Click Clack Moo" book, CJ would say "sinsincerely" instead of sincerely.

CJ still calls blankets "blankies."

And CJ still calls snuggling with me on the couch "snuggies."

On CJ's first 1st grade report card, he got an "Exceeds Expectations" for reading and speaking. I'm not surprised. CJ is very articulate and it's really fun to have conversations with him. I wonder if it's because he's spent so much time with adults.

I'm a Dark Sleeper, Mom

CJ: Mom, I'm a dark sleeper.
Me: You mean you're a heavy sleeper?
CJ: No, I'm a dark sleeper.
Me: What does that mean?
CJ: You're a light sleeper. You wake up when you hear noises. I'm a dark sleeper. The alarm clock doesn't wake me up.
Me: Oh, I see. What about daddy?
CJ: He's a dark sleeper, too. He doesn't wake up when there's loud noises, but he wakes up when I whisper in his ear. Isn't that amazing?

Lessons and Carols

Every year, on the last day of school, CJ's school has a Christmas pageant called "Lessons and Carols."  There's a message from the Head of School and the Reverend, readings by some of the kids, and Christmas songs performed by each class.  I love this pageant because it always gets me into the holiday spirit in a big way.

The kids get all dressed up.  The girls are adorable in their fancy, sparkly, satiny dresses.  CJ was wearing a button down shirt, a real tie from Land's End and a blue pin-striped blazer.  I think his blazer was just a little too small.  I tried it on him this summer and it was still really big, but he must have had a growth spurt because when I went to put it on him this past week, it was a little snug.  Oh well.  He's only worn the jacket three times in his life.  It will go into the MJ 5-year box so we can get a little more use out of it.

CJ's class joined with another class to sing "Oh Come Little Children."  The music teachers did an excellent job of prepping the kids.  The 5th graders in particular did an awesome job.  Maki calls them the A team.

CJ is on winter break for a few weeks.  I love that we don't need to scramble in the morning to get him out the door by 7:45am but I'm not nuts about having him home with nothing to do.  Time to organize a thousand playdates!

How is Uncle Owen Luke's Skywalker's Uncle?

CJ is obsessed with Star Wars and Legos these days.  Big surprise.  I'm obviously a giant Star Wars fan and Maki introduced CJ to Legos and Lego Mindstorms early.

CJ has been watching the movies lately and has been interested in the family tree of the Skywalkers.  Here is a recent, hilarious exchange between me and CJ.

CJ:  Mom, how is Uncle Owen Luke Skywalker's Uncle?

Me:  Owen was Anakin's stepbrother.

CJ:  What's a stepbrother?

Me:  Well.  Let's see.  When a mom and dad split up and one of them remarries and has children, then you become stepbrothers and sisters.  Anakin's mom had Anakin, then she married Lars and had a baby named Owen.  So Luke and Owen are stepbrothers because they had the same mom.

CJ:  You and daddy and split up all the time.  Every morning, you and daddy split up and drive to work.  Do I have stepbrothers and sisters?

Me:  Hmm...  split up in this case is something different.  When a mom and dad split up, they stop being married.

CJ:  You mean they dismarry?  (Note how he's trying to put together words; it's not right in this case, but a great job at using "dis")

Me:  Yes, it's called getting divorced.  Don't worry, mommy and daddy aren't getting divorced and you're not getting any stepbrothers and sisters.

CJ:  Did Leia have stepbrothers and sisters?

Me:  I don't know.  Remember Alderaan got blown up by Darth Vader?

CJ:  Oh yeah.

Do you think this is TMI for a six-year old?

Annual Tree Trimming Party

Yesterday was our annual tree trimming party.  We normally invite some people over for snacks, hot chocolate, and decorating. For me, it's a great way to get into the holiday spirit and I get help decorating my tree!

Last year, we invited a lot of people to the party: neighbors, a couple of CJ's friends from preschool and CJ's entire kindergarten class. It was super fun but it was a mob scene. This year, we invited CJ's best buddies from school and their parents. I just didn't have it in me to do a big party, what with the baby and all. Plus, since MJ is so little, I wanted to limit the germs we were introducing into the house.

We had a ball.  For the first time, the kids actually helped decorate the tree. Last year, the kids put all my candy canes in one section of the tree. This year, they put up candy canes and non-breakable ornaments and they did a great job of spacing out the decorations around the entire tree!


Once the kids got tired of decorating the tree, they went upstairs and played with CJ's Legos. Then they had a quick dinner of mac 'n cheese.  My mom, the other moms and I finished decorating the tree and putting up garlands and bows throughout the house. The house looks so great!

Hilarious photo of the boys during dinner!