Christmas Eve

We ended up making about 70 tamales! Our freezer will be filled with them for a while.

When James was growing up, he had a neighbor named Mrs. Miranda, who made the most amazing authentic Mexican food. His favorite of all were the tamales that she would make every Christmas Eve. For the longest time James and I have been wanting to make or own tamales for Christmas Eve dinner but we have been to overwhelmed to try it out. Thankfully, this year, a new friend of mine showed a group of us how to make them about a week or two before the big day came. With my new found confidence in tamale-making, we ventured out on our own! We rented a traditional Mexican food cookbook from the library to figure out how to make the beans and rice that he remembered his neighbor making when he was growing up and crossed our fingers that it would all turn out! Happily, they sure did! We were in tamale heaven and porked out to our hearts content!

Steaming the tamales

Since there are so many steps to this meal, I had to start early and thanks to Jamesy-cakes, it was documented!

Who knew that cooking with lard could be so tasty?!!!!!

The food was so good that we couldn't stand the thought of throwing it away, so we shared the leftovers with the little freezing animals and birds in the backyard.

Char and Mason, just before they braved the cold for our furry friends.

For dessert, we finally got around to making gingerbread houses, thanks to Aunt Valerina! I had intended on making real gingerbread for the building, but life got away from me so graham crackers saved the day! The boys couldn't have cared less about what the walls were made of. They were too busy having fun and snacking on candy!

Charpie added so much candy that his house crumbled even before he was done and surprisingly enough, he was more than okay with it.

James made a ranch house that was inspired by one that we Vances like to joke about.

Mason was so proud of his smiley little shack. Cabey was most impressed with the Dots. I can't blame him since I agree that they are divine.

Two happy builders

Valy's finished house

After finishing the houses and reading Luke 2, the boys got to open one present each. This year I let them open up presents that Sister Porter sent us in a surprise package. As you can see, the boys were thrilled!!!

Cabey liked it simply because it was some sort of vehicle while Mason liked that his made really cool music whenever he pressed the button (and because of that he used his like a boom box). Char liked his so much that he immediately shared his truck with Ratty.

Ratty thought it was equally cool

Just before they skipped off to bed, Mason left his gingerbread house by our fireplace for Santa to snack on. He thought that it would be a welcomed change from all of the cookies that he would be eating all over the world. I have no doubt that Santa agreed.