Christmas Eve

So I have no idea what you all do for Christmas Eve, I love Christmas Eve because it is so much fun and we always have a blast!! First I start out with breakfast with the Harlows, then finish shopping and wrapping presents, then get ready for Christmas Eve service at church, then drive over to grandma rachel's to eat tamales, then play 21, poker and other card games with my cousins betting with PESOS ( grandpa's pesos and he always ran his card table before when he was alive), then we fight with my aunts and uncles that we can not start open the Christmas story or ANYTHING until midnight because that is tradition! It is so much fun...we argue with them and then turn a little annoying about the timing of things...Then we gather around; there are almost 50 people all in my grandmas kitchen, living room and dining room...an older cousin reads the Christmas story ( Jeremy does the best at it)...then we go around and say what we are thankful for and then have a family prayer time thanking God for the blessings of the past year and asking for protection and His grace for the coming year. Then us older girl cousins start passing out the gifts to everyone ( my aunt jen and lisa used to pass them out when we were younger) after all of the gifts are passed out then we open up gifts. By the time we are all done picking up the trash and opening up gifts then we get in our cars and go home...it is about 1:45 by now...growing up it was funny because my parents are procrastinators and would still have to go home and wrap the rest of our presents.

Pray for US!!!

Scott and I are so happily married and we love each other with all of our hearts! We are having a rough holiday season and would love any and all of your prayers! We found out this morning that Scott will not be able to come home for Christmas or Christmas Eve...Our hearts are VERY heavy and we are both trying to love each other through our pain and hurt...we are asking that everyone just pray that we don't fight over these next 48 hours! We love you all and wish you the Merriest Christmas!

Mom's Bday

My mom is so funny and I love her so much! She cracks me up all the time and she sometimes is a "little" high matienance and can not really let us give her what she wants unless she knows all the details. for example she wanted a specific cake. The cake that she wanted we ordered and the day of her birthday dinner she was talking about how she might want to go out to eat, so lets go...then she said she doesnt get what she wants....blah...blah...blah so then I pulled out the cake and just showed her the cake and said SEE HERE IT IS!!! It was all in all a good day...she loves the popcorn popper that we got her and was delighted to have all of us around the table eating and sharing with each other...the only missing family member was my wonderful hubby, he was at work :(

Hot Tamales

I love my big, loud, giving, and wonderful family. Sometimes I forget that everyone does not have the same love, acceptance, care and support that I have from my family. My family on my dad's side of the family has been making Christmas tamales longer than I have been alive. I love it!! It is a great time of fun, love, laughter and making memories. We normally wake up and start at like 7:30 in the morning and then we finish around noon...Growing up my grandpa always had the most important job to clean the corn husk and the olives. Growing up I was always close to grandpa. He taught me how to clean the corn husk and how long to soak them , the proper way to gather up the hair, etc. My grandpa has been gone now for two years . I miss him and it was hard for my grandma. Last year I decided that as long as my grandma makes tamales at her house that I will take over my grandpas job of sneaking little kids olives on their fingers, clean the corn husk and heckling my aunts, uncles, cousins and loving my grandma. We started later in the afternoon this time around and that felt very wierd because we didnt eat any mexican bread or drink any coffee and everyone was already awake so the heckling was too much!

Cake

My husband is so adorable, and I love it so much that he and I have so much fun together...we have a ton of fun whenever we are together. Scotty is so amazing and amazing to me and I think that it is so cool when he cares for me and show it in little special ways how he loves me. One of the things that I wanted for my birthday was my husband to make me my birthday cake. He did such a good job. He was amazingly funny through the cake making process, " you are not suppose to mix it in the pan"..."how do you turn on the oven"..."I spray this stuff all over the pan"..."how do I get the egg shell out of here"...the comments were hysterical and I loved watching it and laughing with him all the way! He was so miticulous about frosting the dual layered cake, it was even warm which made it AMAZING! The whole time he was baking he got to here so many comments from the peanut gallery aka anyone who came over for lunch. It was a day that just left me looking at him with such a warm smile. He even decorated with 26 candles...i felt so old and the way he arranged them made me look much older too! Glad to have him and all of you through this next year of memories

Scotty like jack ass the show

Scott & I met my parents at Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree...Before we got there we had a LOAD of fun. Scott loves the show jack ass, and I have never seen a single episode. HE said hey get in the cart and I will push you around. It was very funny!!! he spun me around, let go, laughed, crashed me into the curb, etc. He had a blast and so did I. My brothers Chris & Jeremy did encourage him to be a little more mischievous than normal. Scott even pushed me all the way across the parking lot and parked me at the Christmas tree lot...LOL...The day workers in the parking lot were laughing so much at us and talking a bunch in spanish. i am sure that they were saying...look at those crazy white people...they treat carts like toys...must be nice to play and not have to work...crazy wuedos (white people in Spanish)...My parents drove up and could not believe what I was doing because it was way out of my normal character...if my brothers would have done it, I would have been so mortified and MAD...but Scotty just is different! He had so much fun and loved the fact that he could run and push me and that he was going to get yelled at by his mom. We cracked ourselves up...my siblings made sure that we got a picture.

All I want for Christmas is....

My Hubby Home on Christmas Morning!!

So for the most part this year, I am protesting Christmas this year...I know that I am being selfish and a little bit of a brat, BUT here me out first! I love being married to Scott and since we were dating the (second time) I always imagined what our first Christmas as a married couple would look like...we would wake up at our house on Christmas morning...he would bring me coffee in bed...we would make up open presents in our pajamas....get in the car and drive over to my parents house to open presents...his mom, dad and sisters would come over for brunch...and we would just hang out all day.

This is just merely a dream in my head that will not be a reality for me! The fact that it will not be a reality brings tears to my eyes when I even think about it just a little. Scott has to work on Christmas day and will not be home until about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It is hard to hear lots of people's comments about how it is not that big of a deal, its just a pagan holiday, he will be home in the afternoon, so what if it's your first Christmas, BLAH BLAH BLAH. In my opinion Christmas is about spending time with the ones you love, making memories and enjoying each other's company. I dont really want to make any Christmas memories with out the human being alive that I love most, SCOTT! I love my family dearly, but I have a special love for Scott. Part of me is just wanting to lay in bed depressed on Christmas morning and not do anything until he comes home. I dont know what I am going to do yet, accept be a BRAT and protest it until it comes around and I HAVE to make a decision .

The one thing that we have done so far to celebrate Christmas is go get a tree with my parents.