A Christmas Vacation III: New Years

Our new years celebration also happened at my mom's house in Anapra. The families put together a dinner, and everybody stayed over night, so it was a dinner and a sleepover! It is our family tradition to have a time right before the new years countdown to talk. After a small devotional by my Dad, everyone has a chance to speak about their year and be grateful for their blessings and share about their griefs. It's a very special time for me, so much so that when little Mr E (let the record show that this is his official blog nickname graduation) woke up in the middle of the celebration, I decided to let him stay up so I wouldn't have to go in our room to put him back to sleep. hehe! Most of my family members this year spoke of the blessing we have in each other's support. We also prayed at the end and then counted down and did the usual kiss-and-hug-and-congratulate thing. 

Mr E eating his 12 grapes waaay ahead of time and listening to my family's speeches.

My brother telling us how he met his fiance (the pretty teary-eyed girl by his side)

 Meanwhile, the little ones were being super noisy and playing together. Here is little Miss E's group:

And Daddy keeping an eye on them before the devotional...

I don't know how to cut this! I'm just gonna serve it and you will like it!

 ~HAHA! That's just what I imagine her saying

 We discovered how to take these pictures that night... and we totally abused the heck out of it hehe!

 This is us hanging out before people started coming:

My sister doing my mom's makeup. At one point, my mom, my sister and my aunt were all doing their makeup together and Miss E loooooved it. She just sat down by them watching them put their make up on and loving the feeling of being a part of the ritual. It was so cute, and I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it!

Setting up :)

Little Mr E stealing my mom's drink and saying that it's hot. Gosh he talks so much for his age!!!

A day before New Years, Quijote and I left the kids with my parents and went out for a date. It was awesome- but I only took these pictures of the coffee shop goodies:

And here are a couple pictures we took when we went to visit my sister S and her family. She made a delicious meal!! Oh, all the amazing food we ate this trip!! She and her husband are working on her home and just put some new floors. They are a ceramic tile designed to look like wood, and it's just SO beautiful. It was a great time for me to catch up with her, and the kids had fun too, of course. Just the other day Miss E saw her cousins' picture that I have in the dining/living room and she yelled their names in excitement. And she always wants houses in books to be D's house.. I just realized I must have subconsciously copied my sister's thing of naming her kids so that they both have the same first letter. Her two Ds and my two Es :)

Kind of incredible that she didn't really have a functioning kitchen yet. And you can see the tile behind the food!

And the kids playing at the playground:

And here are pics of our "young but not so young kids" outing :D We went to a restaurant called Viva Mexico that has a show on weekends. It's an amazing show! Traditional dances, the world champions of rope and horse training, Mariachi- the works! My sister's friend got picked on by the local comedian too, which I thought was hilarious.. hehehe!

And my cousins playing at church our last Sunday there. They are very talented. And good looking, right?

 The children had a posada that day too! Here is Mr E hitting a pinata:

My aunt S had an impromptu birthday party. We all made bunuelos together and the little girls had a blast playing together. Miss E had so much social time this trip! She is so bored at home now that she only has us for her playmates. Well, we had a great time. I miss having this sort of thing. Someone said we should make bunuelos, and my aunt had her birthday coming up, and on her birthday people started showing up (us included) and before we knew it, it was a party.

My little D, in the hat, was such a great helper. Other little girls followed suit, but she remained a helper even after others lost interest. She was rewarded with the inaugural bunuelo. 

The girls with a "uh oh, we got caught playing house in the shower" look! HAHA!!