Christmas Eve

Yes, I realize that Christmas was almost a month ago but I also realized that I never got around to posting the actual pictures!  On Christmas Eve, we hosted Ramy's family.  I worked on the 23rd, rushed out and to the packed supermarket, and then we cooked and baked most of the night and the morning of Christmas Eve. 

We had planned to attend the children's mass on Christmas Eve, which is held at 4:00 p.m.  I knew that it would be crowded, so I planned to arrive at 3:30.  I was serving communion.  When we pulled out of our driveway, Jasmine texted me to let me know that they had arrived at the church and the main church was already packed!  They were holding seats for us for the co-occurring mass in Maher Hall.  That hall was packed also!  The girls had a lot of fun attending mass together. I got a little confused in serving communion, as I had never done it in the Hall before and ended up being at the very back wall.  Nonetheless, it was nice to kick off Christmas Eve at church.  Then everyone headed over to our house for the festivities.

Because they were together and it was a party, the girls changed into Spidergirl costumes.  I really cringed at the thought of our Christmas Eve pictures having them in Halloween costumes, because Rebecca had a really sweet dress.  Nonetheless, I let it go.

Here are Rebecca and her sweet cousins.

While we waited on everyone else to arrive, the girls watched some Christmas shows on television and talked about when we might let them open presents.

After Grandma and Auntie Theresa arrived, it was time to eat!  We had cheese straws, sausage balls, and cheese ball as appetizers. We did a wonderful prime rib on the rotisserie that Maddy and Paul gave us as a housewarming gift.  I love to do it as a sandwich on a baguette with arugula and parmesan cheese shards. Along with that, we had mashed potatoes, creamed corn, caprese salad, macaroni and cheese, and some Filipino food.  For dessert, I slaved over my aunt's caramel cake, which was one of the most laborious cakes I have ever made, and we also had chocolate pie and cream cheese pound cake. We were honored to be joined for dinner by our new friend Rod and his son Rod.

After digesting sufficiently, it was time for dirty Santa.  As Myrna gave the rules, these two were laughing and not paying attention.  It caused them problems later on!

Auntie Myrna was assisted by her Spidergirls.

I ended up stealing this Bath and Body Works set from Jasmine.

The Spidergirls were eager to help all the adults open their dirty Santa gifts.

Ramy was so enamored of the gift he contributed that he opened it himself and was terrified someone would steal his precious fire extinguisher.  It may well have been his favorite Christmas gift.  He's a simple fellow.

The real entertainment happened when Myrna tried to steal Theresa's gift.  Because she hadn't been paying attention, Theresa wasn't really up on the whole stealing aspect and hit the gift inside her shirt.

At long last, Dirty Santa was completed and it was time for the "kids" to open their gifts.  Boy was it hard to keep Hannah and Rebecca from mixing up their gifts! 

They eagerly watched each other open their gifts and ooohhed and aahhhed over the things they each got.  Slinky tried to take part also (it was a five dog night for Christmas Eve in the Cisneros household!).

It was a really fun night.  However, when the girls saw that Santa was in Montana on Norad, they quickly called the evening to an end.  Rebecca jumped in bed before she could even say goodbye to all the family, because she was so afraid that Santa would get there before she was asleep!