Christmas and New Year

 Yup. I hereby promise to come back and post pictures! We spent Christmas with my family and had a wonderful time with them. My parents also helped us take the kids to see Paquimé, a very old archeological site a few hours away. Come to think of it, I will set up a post especially for that mini trip, since it was a once in a life time type of thing :)

I will be back! I promise! :')

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Ok it is now March 7th and I am enjoying an unusual and brief breather at the end of Girl Scout cookie season, which of course starts in early January (right after school starts for the Spring semester, so that we have a whirlwind of travel, followed by school prep, then the start of the school semester, then cookies! It gets so crazy! Not to mention we still need to keep up with work, house work, school, activities, etc.) It has been super busy-- and like every year, I am convinced that not doing cookies next year would be awesome. Haha. I love GS, but not the cookie season. It is so stressful and exhausting for me (I didn't let Vee do much cookie selling, but I still had a ton of work organizing things for the rest of the troop) and we won't be done till the end of March... no fun... no rest for the weary...

--- anyway, back to posting about December fun. 

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Yes! December was a little bit different this year, since my brother and his wife built their new home and moved into it right before the Christmas season. It was agreed by all that the best place for our family Christmas time would be their house, and we spent a couple night there with them- which meant seeing our family in El Paso, and of course also doing a little bit of hiking in the Franklin Mountains that my lil bro and his wife love spending time in. 

Lotta pictures coming at ya.

First, the annual Christmas crafting of gifts for the fam--

And Vee's Christmas Concert:

And more Elf fun

Vee enjoyed being a teacher at Cookie University

And also being my model the day it snowed for the first time...

And the official 2024 Christmas family picture :)

After doing all the work of taking a family picture, printing out cards, and getting them ready to mail (addressing and stamping them) we managed to lose them over the Christmas trip. Yup. That is the level of craziness we are dealing with in this hose :P

But I also posted on Facebook a picture of just Q and I... and I really do love it, so this is a reminder to myself that I want to put it here :)

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And now for pictures of the actual Christmas trip :)

Starting with that hike I was talking about :)

Día de tamales en casa de mi tía Sandra:

A picture I stole from someone on facebook:

Vee relaxing on the other side of the border, after we went to Juarez for the rest of the Xmas break:

Went to the movies with my sister S, and dad's grilling

Then our visit with my Abuelita Alicia:

And a few pictures I have from the day before new years, at the house in Anapra:

These are my cousin's kids playing with Eli the day of new years. SO cute!! They were huddling together around the computer at my tia Sandra's house, too. 

Surprise, surprise, I don't seem to have pictures of the actual new years party. I will look for pictures I can steal from people LoL

I think the rest are of the day after. We rested for a day after new years, then headed home. 

I love this Bible. It would be wrong to steal it, wouldn't it?!? Haha. Its faded leather is a familiar and comforting sight. 

More delicious food...

And ready to cross the border into ELP

Quick breakfast before heading home... 

And... home. Early january. Here are the kids, playing or watching YouTube at the desk under Vee's bed.

Meanwhile...

Life just doesn't stop these days.