Christmas Eve

On my side of the family, it is tradition to get together on Christmas Eve and have tamales and a great celebration. We let the kids, the ones that can actually do it, stay up until midnight to open gifts. Then we all stay up for a while longer and enjoy more festivities.

Christmas Eve has always been one of my favorite things. The memories that conjure in my mind during Christmastime are those of a house full of cousins (three sets), my mom and aunts in the kitchen up to their elbows in tamale maza, music, presents wrapped in cereal boxes that took up half of the living room floor space, everyone piled in every room of the house and sleeping over, and midnight mass.

Midnight mass has a whole separate set of treasured memories, the smell of incense, the choir's singing, the battle with sleepiness and half the time losing the battle, the other battle with my wandering mind as I wondered how many of the presents where for me. But my favorite part of midnight mass was at the end of mass when we would line up and make our way to the steps of the sanctuary to kiss the baby Jesus from the life-sized nativity scene. There was just something so magical about the act of pressing your lips to the cold ceramic surface of the figurine's knee that made you feel as if you were kissing the actual Jesus. I can't explain it but it was truly holy and all together magical.

Sadly, since we (the cousins) are all grown up and have our own children now, our extended family has grown exponentially. There is no house in our circle big enough to hold over 100 people so as of about 15 years ago we started celebrating Christmas Eve on a smaller scale. The celebration is still very meaningful to me but in a different way. With age and maturity, comes the understanding of the true meaning of Christmas and I think that makes the season even more special and treasured.

This year, we celebrated Christmas Eve at D&J's. As can be expected when D&J are the hosts, the food was superb! We didn't make tamales this year for Christmas, instead, we made them for New Year's Eve.

David made his famous, slow cooked (9 hours) beef roast. It was so tender and delicious. Yum!


Jeanette made a wonderful shrimp scampy. By the time I wanted to take a picture of it, the serving dish was all but empty!

My mom made her delicious green beans and asparagus.

Cari made a puff pastry appetizer with cheese and spinach. She made the pastry herself. Cari, just like David, is an excellent cook but let me tell you, I had doubts that she would be able to pull off a puff pastry. Well, she did not disappoint. The pastry was puffy yet not too dry or hard, it was perfect! Good job, Cari!


Horacio and I made Oysters Rockefeller. They were awesome!


For the oysters, Horacio and I went to a Chinese market. I had not been to a Chinese market in years and I forgot what a treasure they are. They have so many delicious things. Some stuff, just as for any other culture, is unrecognizable to me, but it is wonderful how today, we are exposed to so many different kinds of food. I love that you can walk into a market and be transported to that particular place in the world.


From all of us here at the Casillas Domum, we hope your Christmas was merry and filled with treasured memories and traditions. May you continue to make new ones and may this new year bring you much health, happiness, and LOVE.


Merry Christmas!
SC
xoxo