These pictures will look very Christmasy, but I am sure by now everyone knows how much we love Christmas. Since we often travel to see friends (like this year) or family (like most years) we have started a tradition of sorts --- we try to decorate before leaving and have a mini-Christmas/Thanksmas on our own for a bit before the November-December family travel starts.
So here are some pictures I took on November 19th of 2023! I always deep clean the house for a couple of days before asking Quijote to bring out all my decoration boxes out from storage. Last year I invested on some pretty, green and red bins, and this Christmas was the first year we got to take them out and feel "pretty" haha and festive. All our decorations are super old- I keep them for years and years. Most of them were made by the kids, our primos, the grandparents on both sides... given to us by family and friends. You will also notice that El got the VR system much earlier than his birthday, which we did with the hope that it would extend the fun. Why not, right? Since he had already made the decision to spend his BD funds on that, we went for it as early as the "right price" made itself known. We also got enough lights to decorate the living and dining room windows this year :)!
Yes, we STILL do the elf on the shelf stuff! Though this year, I enlisted the help of new elves-- the kids themselves. Haha. They took turns playing tricks on each other. It was fun.
Vee is usually an enthusiastic decorator, but Quijote and El usually help when volunteered. Haha. This year, though, I would say they were both more participative than usual. El was more invested in that tree than he usually is! And I think poor Quijote is now used to my crazy cleaning rush, the blasting of Christmas music, and the necessary numerous trips to the attic. He's come to enjoy it enough to even join in the fun and make delicious food for the occasion! It was really truly all of us this year, working and enjoying the joy of Christmas prep together, and I will probably treasure this memory for a long time.
See the karaoke screen on the TV. Oh yeah. There is much singing and dancing every year. That and the eggnog. There has to be eggnog.
Other than that, we've continued enjoying our involvment with Girl Scouts, and El has also been having lots of fun with his Gymnastics class this year.
He edited that picture himself.
For Thanksgiving, since my in-laws traveled to see their other two kids up north, we took the opportunity to take a quick trip to Dallas and see friends. We hadn't had a proper visit in so long! It was so good to see them after all these years.
Do excuse the photo dump, I'll try and caption things a lil' bit :P
All set and ready for travel!
We got to our Airbnb and stepped out into downtown for dinner. We were looking for a chill taco place, but ended up in a FANCY taco place. An oxymoron, if ever there was one.
I hate to admit it was delicious.
The next day we went to the art district in town, and walked around several areas, parks, shopping strips...
I will have to come back with pictures of our Friendsgiving with the APsi people. Why don't I have any? Just this one of the building where we met?
And this is another meal we had with just J and F and their partners. It was good seeing them.
V and L at Starbucks on the way back home:
And home!
We made traditional cookies and hot cocoa and lots of yummy dishes to reward ourselves for a good, though super exciting/exhausting trip. Haha.
And soon after, we were back to our Xmas antics. Painting Christmas windows and enjoying the elf fun.
Oh and these are pictures of my repainting job-- had to fix all our chairs, tables, even the leather chairs needed "una manita de gato."
before pictures
After pictures:
LOL to the Elf silliness!!! I hope I don't get in trouble for this LOL
Vee practicing
