Johnathan's first Christmas!

This Christmas was by far my most favorite because it was Johnathan's first Christmas! We took a trip up to Dallas to hang out with our families over the holiday, and as always had a wonderful time.

Christmas Eve was spent at my grandma's house, which is a tradition over 30 years old...obviously I haven't been there quite that long, but for as long as I can remember we've been going there, and it's one of my favorite things about the Christmas holiday. One special thing about Christmas Eve is the "Christmas Play" that is put on by the kids in the family. This year there was a live nativity set, and as we all sang Christmas carols we were able to look upon the scene of Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus (Johnathan!), and the other characters in the Christmas story.

Christmas Day was enjoyed at my parent's house...and after going through the many traditions that make up Christmas morning, we enjoyed hours, yes hours of opening gifts...one, by, one! It's so much fun to be able to watch each person open and enjoy their present, thank the giver and so on. We usually start with the youngest person, watch as they open a gift, and then the next in line gets a turn. This year with the addition of more little people (i.e. the grandsons) there were even more persons waiting their turn. It was fun to watch Johnathan and his cousin Miles open their toys. Holidays are just so much better when there are little ones running (and crawling) around.

The day after Christmas was spent with Aaron's family. We were fortunate to be able to have pretty much all of the family gathered together, with the exception of Aaron's grandmother who stayed at home the spend Christmas with her sister. Johnathan's cousin, Ava, is certainly a bright spot in the Aldape family. She is about 16 months old, and is a walking & talking little cutie pie. A Christmas tradition in Aaron's family is the tamale dinner, which we enjoyed way too much! I just love tamales, especially on Christmas when they're served with queso, guacamole, tortillas, beans and rice. Let me tell you, the Aldape family does the tamale dinner proud!

I took a *few* hundred pics over the course of our holiday, and have a few of my favs here. If you want to see more you can add me as a friend on facebook...I have most of them there since it's a bit faster to upload them that way. Much love to you all, and Happy New Year!!!