One of my favorite holidays

We arrived before dinner with plans to surprise the kids with a sneak arrival of Ol' Saint Nick while they were busy playing on the computer in the other room. That always happens right near midnight as the fireworks are going off in the back ground. "How did he get in and put all those presents under the tree without us hearing him?" they would ask (every year).

Getting back to dinner, my girl made her famous empanadas so I do not need to cover that process here. The family we were visiting and their kids, who are older made chicken and a wonderful dish called lengua a la crema with a nice cream gravy on it. The children's bubbly, while packaged the same as always and labelled "fruty" tasted so bad they would not touch it without us adding sweet syrup to it. I am all for lowering the sugars they eat and drink but this stuff was horrible. Mine have no weight problems, as a matter of fact, quite the opposite. They burn off their cookies and cake as fast as they eat it.

My little girl did not make it to midnight. She developed a headache, which has been the thing lately as well as other growing pains, so I spent time with here and a cold washcloth until she fell asleep that night.

Her gifts stayed wrapped while everyone else opened theirs. She got a knitting machine because she has been self learning from youtube how to knit and crochet but she has not completed anything yet. So now sleeves and other extensive work can be done with the turn of a crank.

Her brother got a train set and a car that follows a track of sorts over hills or even inside its own loop.

Some of the bigger 'kids' helped set those up. Here is the minivan moving onto its little road.

I missed some of the festivities including fireworks shot off from the roof of the tall building that houses the apartment, but I was part of the 'ching-ching' right before we left. I carried my girl down and we returned home in a cab. Everything was so nice except the pain of my little lady who is developing and all of what she is going through is part of that process.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season with your families and loved ones. I am attempting to get used to Hive and its potential to save some money by sharing bits about our lives and times.