Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Celebrations

We attended Christmas Eve church service this year and then went to our annual Chinese dinner with my parents. When I was growing up, one of the places we lived was a smaller town, and the only restaurants open on Christmas Eve were Chinese ones. The tradition stuck so that is what we still go and do today for Christmas Eve dinner! Sandra joined us and the kids opened their traditionally new Christmas Eve pajamas. This year, everyone received reindeer onesies! The girls watched the movie "Santa Claus" in our room and spent the night, another tradition. Juan worked Christmas Day but enjoyed opening his presents before going to work. It is difficult to get teens to cooperate for pictures as much as we want, but we got one of them opening their new pajamas. My parents put together a fun basket of presents for the kids to open on Christmas Eve and a ring toss game that allowed them to earn money. They are always trying to think outside the box and make things fun for the kids!

Christmas Vacation Time

It is finally break time for the kids from school and even though they are getting older, I still try and make it special. Each child has their favorite candy. Ingrid helped Dainis make banana bread and wrap presents. Juan was busy working most days at his job at La Loma Independent Living.

Awards Ceremony at West MEC for Juan

 As we have said before, Juan is in his first year of computer coding at West MEC Technical School this year and is doing very well there. He was chosen this fall to be part of a group to re-design the website for the campus. It has been great hands-on experience, and we are really proud of him! They had an award ceremony as part of the end of the semester yesterday and the school gave him an award for his hard work with the website. The award was in recognition of his communication, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills in the re-design of the website. If he will keep up this good work, he will find great success in the future.

Operation Santa Claus

My Mom purchased toys for the Operation Santa Claus Charity Drive. One of the drop off locations was Sanderson Ford so we went as a family and drop all the gifts off. With everyone's school and work schedule, it is often difficult to work a time out where we can all be together! We enjoyed dropping off the gifts and then going out to dinner together.