This has been the best holiday season for me EVER. I’ve always loved the holidays, Christmas in particular, and my mother taught me to enjoy it with equal joy no matter how little or how much we had and that is one of the best lessons my mother has ever taught me. Now that I have children of my own, I want them to feel the same way. I want them to be excited about the holiday no matter how much or how little they receive presents-wise.
I love that our family is multicultural because it means that we get an extra long Christmas. As the daughter of a Mexican mother, I grew up celebrating Christmas (Nochebuena) on Christmas Eve. We would feast, party, stay up until midnight, tear open gifts, and then fall asleep exhausted. I never woke up to gifts on Christmas Day, but my husband who is not Latino, well, he’s sort of attached to the whole celebrating on Christmas Day thing and who am I to say no to more celebrating?
For our daughters that means they get to celebrate Christmas Eve the way I did and then they wake up to Christmas Day celebrations like their father had. It’s a beautiful thing.
What made this the best holiday season I’ve ever had? To begin with, we were all healthy. It was starting to seem like a holiday tradition that at least one of us had to be horribly sick during Christmas, but not this year, Baby! (You dont’ mind if I call you, Baby, right Baby?) Also, at 2-and-more-than-a-half and 5-years-old, both of my daughters really get into the build up of Christmas in a good way. And the star on the top of our Christmas celebration this year was the extended family we got to spend it with. Unknown Tío and his Unknown Lady Friend and my dear, dear Jewish friend whom I’ve known since junior high. I only point out that my friend is Jewish because as odd as it may seem, since she started celebrating Christmas with me when we were teenagers, Christmas just isn’t the same if she’s not around and I love that she’s Jewish and celebrates Christmas like my Mexican family because she is so a part of my family. It’s a wonderful multicultural celebration and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.
Okay, now I have to tell you a funny, but not so funny story that happened to us right after Christmas. We found ourselves at a retail store because apparently we love crowds. Once we were done with that chaos, we got into the car, did like we do, and started pulling out of the parking lot when my youngest, Luna Pie, says “Hey, I don’t have a seat belt!” Now, technically Luna Pie wears a harness in her Britax car seat, but she calls the harness a seat belt. Of course, Unknown Papi and I freaked because how could we forget to strap her in? Fortunately, she is so used to and comfortable with our car safety routine that she pointed it out right away.
Disclosure: As a Britax Latina Blogger/Advisory Board Member (and in partnership with Mami Innovative Media), this post is part of a sponsored outreach. All opinions expressed are my own.
Felicidades! Happy New Years 2014 is going to be awesome!
It all sounds perfect. We opened gifts on Christmas Eve growing up and had family over to party with lots of goodies to eat. We started doing Christmas day when we had our own children. I have to tell you that when my children were little there was one time in particular that I was pulling out of our driveway and my son Adam started screaming “no you can’t go, Amber doesn’t have her seat belt on!” He was so protective of her.
Very cute!! We celebrate in much the same way. I never grew up with Santa and my husband did, so we celebrate on the 24th, 25th and the 6th (Reyes Magos). 😉
Smart Kid!
Happy 2014!! Xxx
happy new year! loads and loads of the warmest hugs!
xoxo
Your little girl is smart! I wish you and your lovely family uninterrupted health in 2014, Claudya! We celebrate all festivals 😀 And god knows there are millions in our own country!
We love celebrating as much as we can too so we prepare noche buena, christmas day and dia de reyes as an adopted one since we truly never did reyes 🙂 Felices reyes!