Our Christmas 2007
Posted on December 27, 2007 - Filed Under Fun | 4 Comments
Please bear with me, I´ve totally loaded this post with photos, but mainly because I´m directing all my family to it so they can see how we celebrated Christmas. 
This year marked the first real Christmas we´ve had with kids. The first one, in 2005, was non-existent . . . Dorian had been born 10 days before and arrived home with a fresh colostomy on the 23rd. We were so freaked out about dealing with a new baby, figuring out how to look after a colostomy, and completely exhausted from traveling to the capital every day to sit around on the sidewalk waiting for visiting hours to see our baby, that we didn´t even put up a tree. In retrospect, it was a bad idea. I´d like to have Christmas photos for Dorian when he´s older, but anyway.
Last year was tough, too. I was 5 months pregnant and already feeling lousy and achy. My sister was supposed to come for Christmas, but she kept calling to say it was off, then on, then off and finally bought her ticket the 23rd. She arrived at 7 am Christmas morning, so we had to leave the house at 4:30 am to pick her up at the airport, getting back just in time to run to my friend Julie´s house, where we had a lovely Christmas lunch. However, it meant that Dorian´s gifts were spread out over about 5 days, because everything was in chaos. Plus, we had virtually no money because the school hadn´t paid Irving for three months!
This year, we had two happy little boys, I wasn´t pregnant or recovering from a birth (or miscarriage) for the first time in four years, and it was GREAT! I couldn´t believe that I had enough energy to stay up all night!
So, on the 24th, which is the big day here, we put the boys to bed as normal, and we stayed up watching our early Christmas gift to ourselves, the first season of Jericho on DVD. At 11:30, we woke Dorian who was very confused about this whole getting up in the dark business, but who brightened up as soon as he saw the moon! Then he took off running to his abuelo´s house. Dante woke up a bit slower, but we just left him in his bouncy chair so he could relax.
The houses here are designed with the rooms opening onto a main patio, so we were outside at midnight, which is rather chilly, so we were pretty bundled up. The boys got their Guatemalan gifts just before midnight. Dorian was thrilled with the truck that his abuelo bought him, but Dante was a bit overwhelmed with rattles and toys.
At midnight, the whole country erupted in bombas, or fireworks and firecrackers. Suprisingly, Dante didn´t get freaked out by it, I guess he´s getting used to all the noise. Dorian loved it and yelled for more “boombas”. Irving had bought a huge quantity of firecrackers in the afternoon, so we set them off in the street. I took some videos, but they are really dark. I´ll see what I can do with them, and put them on the blog later today or tomorrow.
After all that excitement, we sat down to the fateful tamale dinner. It appears that the woman who made the tamales didn´t store the chicken (which my mother-in-law took to her directly from the butcher . . . still warm!) in the fridge. The taste wasn´t noticable until the next morning, but I still ended up sick, as did three or four other people in the family. Dorian´s picky eating saved him from the runs and Irving has a cast iron stomach, so he didn´t get sick either. Still, at the time, it was an enjoyable dinner!
From left to right, Diana (Irving´s sister), Vardin (his brother), Esperanza (MIL), Melvin (youngest brother)
Esperanza, Carlos (FIL), Melvin (missing – Gaby (Irving´s sister) and Zanelle (4 year old niece who had gastritis and ended up in the hospital on Christmas morning), they were asleep.
I took a photo of Irving, but by the time I did, we´d finished that bottle you see in the middle of the table and his photos didn´t really turn out. He made me promise not to put them online. 
He wasn´t actually drunk, but the eyes were drooping and made him look wasted.
On Christmas morning, Dorian woke up at 6 am, despite not having gone back to bed until nearly 3 am. I´m seriously rethinking the wisdom of celebrating this holiday Guatemalan style!
Anyway, we woke Dante up so they could open their presents together. As you can see, he was still kinda sleepy and had no idea what was going on! (“What?! You´re waking me up again? I thought I was the one to wake everyone up!”)
However, it didn´t take long for Dante to get into the fact that he got his very own car!
With Dorian´s diet not allowing much in the way of sugar, he was pretty thrilled to get some candy in his stocking. This is his very first candy cane ever.
Which he kept in his hand throughout the morning so it wouldn´t get lost.
We really didn´t get much for the boys this year. Funny, even though we had some money, we didn´t go all out! I guess years of poverty have taught us something after all. What we did do is fill their stockings with little toys from the market and dollar store. At any rate, the kids took nearly 2 hours to open everything because they were just so enthralled with each gift, they didn´t want to stop playing with it to open another one! And sometimes the cheapest gifts are the best ones!
Chasing bubbles is hard work, especially when you´re running on only a few hours of sleep.
Dorian´s big gift was a Tonka loader. He was VERY happy with it. Since it is considerably bigger than his other vehicles, he figured it was for riding on!
Dante enjoyed his new stackable rings, but his brother quickly comandeered the post and some rings to play with.
We enjoyed turkey dinner with Irving´s family before the menfolk had to take off for work. The joy of living with a musician is that they always have to work on the big dates. 
The boys had a blast playing with their toys and pleading for enough bubbles to make me dizzy! They both went to bed nice and early, though, let me tell you!
Thanks to everyone who left me get well messages. I´m feeling much better today, it was a pretty quick recovery, thank goodness.
Comments
4 Responses to “Our Christmas 2007”
Talk to Me, People!
Genesis;
Love these pictures and the background to them
I must say my favorite on is you in the braids…you are way cute!
Glad you enjoyed Christmas and kept it in the simple…it is our hearts desire too.
Your boys are beautiful and I so enjoyed seeing your celebration in Guatemala!
Kimmie
mama to 6
one homemade and 5 adopted
Sounds like you all had a blast. I can’t believe you stayed up all night and then woke up at six! That’s crazy.
That sleepy eyed pic of Dante is SO CUTE! Makes me miss having a baby around. Not enough to have another one, though!
I’m glad you’re feeling better and that you guys had such a great Christmas.
What a memory to share with all of us… The boys really are growng into ‘little men’ aren’t they!
I do not know how you managed to stay up all night either! I am sure that Dorian will understand no photos of his first Christmas, under those circumstances. Anyhow, with this an almost ‘Tribute’ to the two boys, I am sure he will be ok with it!
To think, if Lou had not miscarried, she would be 5 months now, with 2 months to go at work, WOW!! We are going back to IVF if there is no cycle in the next two weeks to start the hormone treatment to bring it on. Then the fun begins again with the rest of it including the INJECTIONS!
Hope you caught up your sleep!!!!
Wow, great pics! Thanks for sharing.