{Noche Buena 2012}

Very blessed to be surrounded by family and keeping our Filipino Christmas Eve family tradition of Noche Buena. Growing up Christmas day was spent visiting relatives, Noche Buena was the day for our immediate family to celebrate the holidays. When my parents and I moved to the United States, I made sure to put in an extra effort in celebrating this by cooking traditional Filipino food for us. I loved how excited my Dad was about the menu. Although my Dad is no longer here with us, I know that he was watching over us and smiling big that our family is together and celebrating.

It's a lot of work to get the spread together. but I wouldn't change anything. I love how excited my Mom, brothers and sister are. I love how Ed enjoys this celebration as well and looks forward to the lechon(roasted pork). Now that the kids are a lil bit older, I love how they are realizing the importance of this day is for the family. At church, I heard William whispered to my brother, "Don't forget tonight is Noche Buena." This year was a special year, Ed's parents joined us. They've heard us talk about it and couldn't be more excited to share our beautiful tradition with them.

Our family of four post church.

Our silly family pretending to be Santa, Mrs. Claus and the reindeers.

Our blessings. They bring so much joy to our family.

How cool is it to have a brother born on Christmas eve and a sister born on Christmas day? Not the same year of course, LOL. Here's my Mommy with her birthday celebrants.

A quick sibling picture (minus my older sister in the Philippines) with our Mom.

My fabulous in laws in their first Noche Buena. Blessed to have them!

It warms my heart to see how much my brothers and sisters think the world of my kids. My children are very fortunate and they love their Titos and Titas.

A happy picture of the hostess with the mostess :)

Birthday cake for our birthday celebrants.

William's awesome rendition of the birthday song for Tito Noel and Tita Susan.

My Kuya Nestor mentioned last Thanksgiving that his favorite ice cream ever is ube (purple yam). I found out that the local Filipino store carried it and decided to surprised the whole family with a special dessert treat. This is the first time for William and Samantha to try it and they loved it. My in laws liked it too. Ed was the only one who wasn't fan :)

My side of the family exchanges and opens present on Christmas eve after dinner. Lots of presents and thoughtful gifts.

Cool boxes and wrappers are still a big hit with the kids :)

It has been a busy day, and we didn't had the chance to make some sugar cookies for Santa. This year Santa got Trader Joe's peppermint oreos as treats. We changed the kids to their adorable Christmas jammies, then they said their goodbye and thank you to our elf Timmy, and prepared the plate of cookies for Santa plus carrots for the reindeers.

That night Ed and I laid in bed with hearts overflowing with gratitude and happiness. What a blessing it is to be surrounded by so much love from our family. Our kids are a joy. We were just as excited for Christmas morning. We could hardly wait for them to open ours and Santa's presents to them.