Christmas Eve

Starting about noon, a light dusting of snow started. Considering that neither Liz nor Jules had ever seen snow, and that this was the first Christmas that Luis may remember (though, of course, he may not), having snow on Christmas Eve was pretty magical.

The beginning of the snow

Three years ago (2006) when Luis was born, JuanFe and RC came over on Christmas and made us the most amazing feast. As I recall, they arrived about 10 a.m. with several bags of groceries and proceeded to cook for the next 8 hours (Diego and I were trying to figure out what in the world to do with the baby we'd brought home the day before). While there was course after course of delicious food, the thing that I remember most was this great chestnut soup that started from actual chestnuts.

This year, JF graciously agreed to make his soup again, but we decided to spread the rest of the responsibilities to the other adults here. Liz took charge of the turkey and decided to brine it - something no one in the house had ever done before. I made stuffing, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots. JF made the soup, steamed asparagus and a homemade apple pie. There was also a salad walnut, goat cheese and cranberry salad (but I'm not sure how that made it to the table!)

Ta-da!!

JF works on the apple pie

Diego carves the turkey

The finished product

My very good friends Chris and Leah joined us and it was great. Everything turned out delicious (especially the brine turkey!!). Luis's interest in dinner was very short. Once she finished eating, Liz was kind enough to go outside with Luis to "play" in the snow.

Me and Leah, Leah and Luis

Luis was very excited about Christmas at bedtime (which was about 2 hours later than it normally is!). He wanted to read the Olivia Christmas book, and asked several times if Santa (and Rudolph!) were really coming. Surprisingly, he was asleep within minutes.

After he went to bed, the rest of us readied for the morning. When we were little, I remember Randolph being the most excited about Christmas morning, having a very tough time getting to sleep. As teenagers, and even into our early 20's, I have these same memories. This year, it was me who had a hard time going to sleep. I think it was after 1 a.m. by the time I dozed off.

[Though this post is being published in December, it was actually written in March.]