merry christmas...

Christmas celebrations started early this year. The kids celebrated with the Kucera family in Rockdale on December 23. On Christmas Eve, the kids went to their grandpa Karl's house to celebrate with the Blomquist family. Also on Christmas Eve, the kids went to the annual Torres family celebration. They were visited by Santa Claus there -- Jacob asked for a puppy and Sydni a doll. Caleb didn't care to see Santa.

At our family party, it is tradition to have tamales. This year we also had homemade beans, tortillas and barbacoa. Jacob and Caleb both liked the barbacoa, which was a surprise to us as they usually don't try new things. Another tradition is to play bingo -- Jacob was the first person to bingo this year. All the kids eventually won and we all had fun.

Sydni and Jacob sang in the choir at the Christmas Eve celebration at our church last night. Well, Sydni sang (and did a great job!) -- Jacob misbehaved and didn't get to sing and he had to sit it out. It's embarassing when Diane's friends go up to her and tell her they were watching Sydni and Jacob to see who would win the fight that was going on between them. Jacob sat down with Granny Gran and he accidentally hit the man next to them. Granny Gran told him he needed to apologize to him and Jacob said "I don't talk to stangers!"

Caleb fell asleep during the entire mass -- which was probably a good thing as I had already warned him that he was losing Christmas presents because he wasn't behaving. He sulked under his coat mumbling "I'm not here...I'm not here" and fell asleep.

After mass, the kids went to Granny Gran and PoPo's and opened some presents. Here's a rundown of what they received:

Sydni

• Disney Princess castle with all the princesses
• Disney Princess story pillow
• Bratz doll
• Hair braider contraption
• Guitar

Jacob

• Transformer robot
• Magnetix Dinosaur
• Airplane
• Skateboard
• Drums

Caleb

• In-line skates
• RC Bulldozer
• Cranky
• Dinosaur
• Electric guitar

Next, they went home and opened presents from Diane and Keith (can't remember all the gifts so here is what I do remember):

Sydni

• My Little Pony Crawler
• Text message phones
• Camera

Jacob

• Robosapien (I can't for the life of me remember anything else as this was the ONLY thing Jacob really wanted this year and he was so excited when he received it)

Caleb

• Gameboy
• Cell phone/text messaging/camera

They are off to another family gathering today and then we will all be together this afternoon for more gift giving.