Santa and Danny

This year, me and Danny attended the ward Christmas party. (Cecilio had to work.) It was beautiful. There was food, singing, tons of kids running around and plenty of people to talk to. There was also a special visitor from the north pole.

I had no idea how Danny was going to react. I figured he might cry, but still, being the evil mother I am, I wanted a picture. So we waited patiently in line and when it was our turn I put Danny on Santa's lap and......he just froze. He wouldn't move. They tried giving him a candy cane but he would not budge. It was so funny. He was so brave! Merry Christmas.

Christmas in El Paso

Our star.

When I was little I remember the star only being lit during Christmas. Now it's lit all year round.

Photo by Paul Garland

The famous Eastridge neighborhood. This neighborhood is known around El Paso as "the" place to go and see Christmas lights. It is quite beautiful.

This house was really neat. Outside, there was sign with a radio station on it. It turns out the lights were programed to go with the music playing on the radio station! Who thinks of this stuff and how do they do it?

Downtown El Paso

The Wells Fargo Christmas Tree (sorry so blurry, we were driving)

I'm sure there's a lot more to do around these parts but these are just some of the things I did growing up. We'd usually go to UTEP as well but this year they don't have their lights up. I hear there's a really neat display at Ascarate Lake. Hopefully we can make it out there. If we do, count on more pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas decorations up this week! It's probably been about four years since we've put our tree up. Our place is really small, and last year we were reluctant to put up the tree in fear that Danny would try to eat the ornaments or something. Now, a year later, ornaments aren't really his thing so, we put the tree up! This is also Danny's cousin, Enlai's, first Christmas. He's going to be visiting us from Arizona, so how could we let his first Christmas go by without a tree? After moving a few things around, voila, it's up.

Danny had fun helping and surprisingly he hasn't tried to take the decorations down or anything. Every once in a while he'll throw a ball at it, but other than that he loves it! He's taken on the responsibility of turning the lights on every night. It's almost like he's taken pride in his tree. Very cute.

Irma's Wedding

Yay, she did it! Here are some pictures from Irma's wedding. She looked so happy and everything was just beautiful. These two are perfect for each other. I wish I could of taken more pictures but I had forgotten my memory card without knowing it. I was so mad!

Mr. and Mrs. Fox

During the reception, Gary sang, How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) to her! It was so cute. He loves her so much!

Unfortunatley it was just me at the wedding. Danny was home sick with Daddy.

Congratulations you two! May you have many happy years together!

7th Annual "Christmas Nativities From Around the World"

Every year, our stake puts on an exhibit of nativities from around the world. It's a two day event that includes hundreds of nativities, music and refreshments and best of all it's free! This was the very first year we've ever attended and I was very touched. It was a great reminder of what Christmas is all about. Here are some of the nativities that caught our eye.

P.S. Danny slept through the whole thing. When President Condie saw Danny sleeping he said, "Ah, you guys had it easy!" And yes, we did, I'm glad I didn't have to chase him down or worry about him getting the nativities. Even though he didn't get to see the displays, I don't think he minded much.

This one reminded me of my sister. She LOVES Coke.

This one was handmade out of bread dough. Very adorable!!

This one reminded us of Lily.

You can't really tell but this one was made inside a nut shell.

This one was made out of pretzels, chocolate and sugar. I wonder how long this would last in our house?

They were all so beautiful and it was so neat to see how people from around the world celebrate Christ's birth.

Christmas Tag

I'm pretty much tagging anyone who reads this. Rules are you have to copy and paste this onto your blog. Merry Christmas!!


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift Bags for adults, wrapping paper for kids. It's fun to see the young kids unwrap their gifts.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I don't even think I would know how to put up a real tree. I've never done it. How sad.

3. When do you put up the tree? Just to give you an idea, my Thanksgiving decorations are still up.

4. When do you take the tree down? After New Year's.

5 . Do you like eggnog? Yes.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I can't remember a specific gift but every Christmas was great!

7. Hardest person to buy for? Kevin

8. Easiest person to buy for? Danny

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Cards, although this year, I'm not sure.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of one.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? All and any. I especially enjoy the classics like, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone, etc.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This weekend, maybe.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Ummm, I don't know.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Bunuelos.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes

17. Favorite Christmas song? This is a hard one. I guess I especially enjoy O Holy Night, and Silent Night.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Let's see, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, is there one named Cupid? I guess that's a no, I can't name them all.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open them at midnight with Cecilio's family and then on Christmas day with mine.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The true meaning of Christmas is lost.

23. What theme or color are you using? Traditional theme.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Hmmm, I'm not sure.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To be with the ones I love and have fun.

The Big 3-0!

I'm 30! For those of you anticipating this age, it's not so bad, really! I feel like a grown up now. I think I actually might like it. I'll let you know. The devastating age for me was 25. I'm not sure why. I felt it was all downhill from there!

For my birthday all I wanted was to be together as a family, so we went to Chili's, and then to the park afterwards. I had a great time! Spending time with my boys was all I could wish for.

This is what I woke up to on my birthday. Danny getting into his birthday cake! He ate so much, it was his breakfast.

Here we are after enjoying a delicious meal at Chili's.

Love this picture! I'm not sure what they were looking at.

This was Danny's favorite slide. I think he went up and down it about twenty times. He probably would of gone more but we had to leave. Before we left, we asked him if he wanted to go down like Superman and he got a kick out of it. He liked it so much that the whole way home he kept saying "Puplah" translation.......Superman. "Danny, did you go down the slide like Superman?" He'd nod his head and say, "Puplah!"