{Christmas 2013}

Finishing my 2013 Christmas post with more special moments with our families.
My family stopped by before we head to dinner with my inlaws.

Love, love my siblings. Missing our sister in the Philippines.

Christmas dinner is always special. Love my in laws table setting.

I always love their flocked Christmas tree.

Cousins time are always the favorite.

My adorable nieces are such young ladies now.

The amount of gifts that we received from our families are unbelievable. So generous of them! Very much appreciated by all of us.

{Merry Christmas: 2013 Card}

{Christmas Morning 2013}

Santa came and the kids loved their stockings and goodies from him. How precious is William's reaction when he saw all the presents under the tree.

New socks, underwear and candy are always a huge hit as stocking stuffers.

Santa delivered all the toys in their wishlist.

Presents, presents and more presents

Mommy and Daddy got goodies too.

Another wonderful Christmas morning for our family of four (plus Riley our dog).

{Noche Buena 2013}

One of my favorite festivities of the holiday is Noche Buena. A very good way for the kids to experience Filipino traditions. Always a joy too, to host my family. It's a lot of work, but it's one day of the year where I try to cook family favorites such as pancit, kare kare, buttered shrimp, vegetable chop suey. I also pick up the lechon kawali (pork roast) from one of the Chinese restaurant near us. You just can't beat the taste, and the convenience.

A family picture post church. The kids were dying to get to their gifts from my family.

So much smiles from the kids during the gift opening. Truly thankful for our generous family. So happy too that my brother made it in from Baltimore.

Samantha really enjoyed opening her gifts. This is the first year where she really connect Christmas wish list to actual gifts. We've been walking the toy aisles of Target and I have been taking pictures of her "list". She was just so happy to get her list and more.

William loved all his presents as well.

This cool paper plane book was a great find by Tito Nestor.

This lucky child also got his very own fully loaded Ipad from Tito Noel. My brother upgraded to an Ipad air and gave William his 64 gb 4th generation Ipad with cellular and wifi capability. Not too shabby for a hand me down. He LOVES it!!!

The adults loved their gifts as well. My mom mentioned to me the last time we were strolling Michael's that she'd loved to get back to crocheting. She was so surprised to get the whole kit. 

Matching socks for the runners in the family.

Auburn fan and wine lover.

A luggage for Tito Noel.

And my brother gave my mom a couple of framed pictures of my Dad. Such a sweet moment and a great way for all of us to have him in spirit with us. Miss him so much dearly!

A great night for our family.

We said goodnights. Left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeers, with both kids anxious for the Christmas morning.

{Christmas at the Botanical Garden}

To continue on with our holiday festivities, we took Ed's family to see the Garden Lights at the Botanical Garden during their visit. It truly is impressive and a sight to see!

The magic is in the air with all these bright and twinkling lights.

Fun times with the family!

{Surprise Christmas Get Together}

When we purchased our home, we intentionally upsized so that we can host visiting families. Living in a loft never really permitted us to have family to spend the night with us. When Aunt Sonie asked me if Aunt Sharon (Ed's aunt from Wilmington) can also stay with us, I got so excited. I envisioned holidays at our home full of family, and hopefully memories that my kids will always treasure forever. The visit ended up being a surprise treat for Gigi. Ed's dad, Randy happened to be in town as well. Sharon's visit was a surprise as well for Randy.

Gigi and Sonie arrived at our house earlier. The secret was becoming harder and harder to keep as we all plan dinner for that night. Our doorbell rang, and I kindly asked Gigi to open the door for me. Her reaction was precious when she saw Sharon and Louie at the door. I wish I would have captured the whole thing in camera. Lots of tears of joy and hugs all around. Randy and Pat shortly came after, and was pleasantly surprised to see everybody. With all of the family living at different states, I wanted to make sure that we captured a good group picture of our rowdy bunch :)

I adore this picture of Gigi and the kids. A mother's pride and joy is forever, regardless of how old her children are.

Kids received this fun gifts from Gigi and Sonie.

The writing books and football games were big hits with both kids.

A great night for the family. Lots of love and laughter.

{Gingerbread 2013}

One of my favorite Christmas tradition is our family gingerbread house decorating night. Lots of candy designing and sampling makes this a sure hit activity with the kids. I picked up one of the kits from Target and we had a lil bit of a challenge with the frosting this year. Oh well, globs of frosting or not we still had fun!

Anxious lil hands, ready to decorate even while Daddy is working on putting together the house.

A lil tasting of the ingredients.

More decorating for the whole family!

Our 2013 Gingerbread House. Half of the candy were eaten so the house is a lil bare this year. But we have kids that were definitely on sugar high that night.