Christmas with the Family

I absolutely love Christmas because it's the best time of the year! I will be the first to tell  you that I am one of those crazy people blasting Christmas music while driving and making sure my Pandora station is set on Michael Buble Christmas. It just sets me in the mood for the holiday.

To sum up my Christmas weekend, it was simply AMAZING! I was able to make it down to Southern California to visit my family and enjoy the beautiful weather...definitely not a white Christmas in LA but that's ok! This was Eden's first Christmas and she loved every moment of it. She got to visit her dad's side of the family for a couple days and spent Christmas with my family. One of the coolest thing I got to do was learn how to make tamales. I've always wanted to learn but found no one to teach me. Thank God for my cousin's mother-in-law who was willing to teach us and among the three of us, we probably made about 8 dozen. To be perfectly honest,  I can eat tamales every morning for breakfast because it's so DAMN GOOD! The tamales that we made tasted like Christmas in your mouth. It was so moist and the pork just danced and then took a dive on your tongue. YUMMY and TASTY! Lesson learned: you need an army to make tamales! Although tiresome...but well worth the sweat and grind.

This year, my dad held the Christmas party at his house. Originally it was just going to be him and a few other family members (i.e. close aunts and uncles) but it turned out to be the event of the season. Let me explain why! Now that my cousins and I are a lot older and we have gone through major life event (i.e. marriage, babies!, school, etc) it's so difficult for all of us to get together and hang out like the old times...you know... the great childhood years. This year was different. Somehow it took a phone call from cousin to cousin to get everyone together and we even carpooled down to my dad's to get there. My dad was surprised that we even showed up because he understood that we have our own life now. I knew that this was something that I didn't want to miss; the opportunity for my dad to see his first granddaughter and to be able to spend quality time with the family.That's what life should be all about.

What I learned most from this Christmas weekend was just how amazing family can be. I know I take my family for granted but when you do take the time to step back and analyze, you realize that in the end that's who will stick with you for life. This Christmas, I'm thankful for my family and cousins (plus the ones that are married into the family and the ones that will soon be) for the support and love that they have given to me and my baby girl. We basically lived our childhood years that night playing board games and reminiscing on old times... and of course, Eden was the star of the night!