Anyone want to play Ghostbusters?

Shad asked for the Ghostbusters Wii game for Christmas.

Several family members were happy to oblige.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids' piano teacher invited us over for a Gingerbread House party. Peter and Laura had been begging me to make gingerbread houses, and this gave them what they wanted, without my having to put forth a lot of effort. The kids had a blast making houses out of graham crackers and then covering them with candy.

Of course, we all know that the best thing about making gingerbread houses is eating all of the candy off of them!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning at the Solis home.

Lots of gifts. Lots of family. Lots of fun.

My favorite gift - framed postcards from our trip to Paris.

(Sorry, dad - the blender is awesome but it's not Paris!)

Peter and Laura tearing into their gifts.

Emily holds Felicia while Kyle opens a gift.

Shad rejoices in receiving a new iPod (thanks Dad!)

Christmas Eve

After setting our luminarias out, we went down to the Natural History Museum to be chased by a T-Rex!

We waited for 1 hour and 5 minutes for a table at Little Anita's in Old Town (after being told the wait should be 20 to 25 minutes).

Then we waited another 30 minutes to actually get food.

We did all of that waiting so that we could have a "good" parking spot for walking around Old Town and seeing all of the luminarias. (For those of you not familiar with Albuquerque, Old Town is the oldest part of Albuquerque - where the city actually started.)

All bundled up and having fun 

(now that we finally have food in our bellies)!

Hoping the real Santa brings great gifts.

He did, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them. 

I'm tired. 

A Christmas Tradition You Will Only Find in New Mexico

Where else would people think to use paper bags as Christmas decorations?!

Every Christmas Eve, our family makes luminarias.

You take paper lunch bags and fold down the top twice 

(so that the top can't fold in on itself and catch fire).

Then you put sand in the bag, to weight it 

down so the wind can't carry the bag away.

Peter and his cousin Kyle enjoyed playing with the dirt, 

while Aunt Xin and Uncle Erik (the headless one) 

kept them supplied with plenty of bags.

Then you line the bags along your sidewalk and driveway.

Here's Laura putting candles in each bag.

Kyle helped, too.

Peter was in on the act as well.

This is what it looks like when you've lined all the luminarias up.

Now, you may be asking yourself, 

why in the world would anyone do this?

To light the way for the Christ-child to come.

They're actually really pretty when they're lit 

(though difficult to photograph).

Merry Christmas everyone!

May Christ find His way into your home and heart.

Christmas Cards

I finally got all of our Christmas cards out. We had a heck of a time trying to take a family picture.

Here's one of our favorites that you won't be seeing in our card!

Caroling

We had a ward caroling party tonight. I love singing Christmas carols. I'm grateful for the power of good music. 

Here are some of my favorite Christmas carols:

• O Holy Night - I adore this song, but alas, I do not have the vocal range to be able to hit those high notes.

• Ave Maria - Another song I can't actually sing because it gets too high.

• What Child is This?

• Do You Hear What I Hear? - I remember singing this with my elementary school choir when I was in 5th or 6th grade. My favorite version is Bing Crosby's.

• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - This carol probably isn't all that popular, but I love the message "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep." I love the fact that it was written during the Civil War, reminding us that no matter how bad things may seem God does not abandon us. Right will prevail!

I'm sure I've forgotten some; there really are too many to mention every single one of my favorites. It was great to go caroling tonight and sing Christmas carols with my kids. I was proud to see that they knew almost all of the words to all of the songs we sang.

***What's your favorite Christmas carol?***

O Tannenbaum!

We set up our Christmas tree a week ago. Shad and I assembled the tree while the kids were at school and they decorated it while I was at yet another meeting.