An Early Christmas

The Jimenez clan decided to celebrate the holidays a bit early this year. This past weekend was the only weekend that some of my cousins from out of state could make it. My Tita Susan was gracious enough to host this year's holiday party at her home in LA. We ate lots of food and indulged in some delicious drinks. We told stories, laughed, had a scavenger hunt, played games and had our traditional white elephant gift exchange. I spent three years of my childhood in the Philippines and I clearly recall my family celebrating in this manner. I'm thankful that we can still continue such traditions here. Although, I must admit that Christmas in the Philippines is definitely a lot livelier and more festive than it is here in the US. We still had a blast and I'm hoping that we'll be even more complete next Christmas. My secret wish is to be able to go back to the Philippines for the holidays next year. It has been over 10 years since I've made the pilgrimage! I'm sure a lot has changed since then. What are your family holiday traditions?

For this game, we had to create a Christmas tree with just our bare hands. To make it even more difficult, we had to have the paper behind us so we couldn't see what we were doing. Mine (2nd from the left) looks like a giant arrow. Probably the worst of the bunch.

The queen of games, Claudine, had each of us feel and smell this giant stocking and guess the objects that were inside. It had everything from a pair of scissors to ornaments. Who would've guessed?

Another tricky game! Partners had to nicely wrap a gift using only one hand. The catch? We had to wear oven mitts! Marc & I lost this one big time!

The stash of presents for the white elephant gift exchange.

Marc had to open a total of 4 gifts since people kept 'stealing' from him. Here he is, ready to get another stolen and yes, he did eventually lose the coveted Khalua!

Ate Rea (Kuya Von's wife) carefully tries to depict one of the many Christmas carols in a round of Christmas pictionary.

My aunt bought some delicious Moscato d'asti from San Antonio Winery. It definitely was a favorite!

The cousins + spouses. Can't believe 3 of us are married now!

Here's a shot of my family. My siblings are taller than me. No fair!

The girl cousins minus 3.

I will try to sneak in one more blog post tomorrow. Our apartment looks like a mess from all the packing we've had to do for our upcoming trip. On top of that, we've been busy trying to get Marc's grad school apps out the door. Thank goodness that's all done now! Tomorrow is my last day of work before a two-week break and I am so excited! On top of that, we just found out today that Marc passed all of his CPA exams! That was my one Christmas wish and I'm so thankful!

Congratulations hubby!!!