Noche Buena 2016

Nana and Bob came over for Christmas Eve dinner / Noche Buena. We had glazed ham this year, with garlicky roasted carrots, peppers, black beans, and salad... but there was a rice disaster and the rice refused to finish soaking up the water until dinner was over. We ignored the defiant rice and enjoyed three desserts - Santa cookies, Spanish "turon," and Boston cream pie. Kevin built a nice fire in the fire place. James left cookies and milk out for Santa before bed. A successful Christmas Eve!

The Clous at Christmas

James, Nana, and Miranda

Me and Mom

Dinner is served

Other side of the table

Fire building

Us again!

James is 5.5 so this is his 6th Christmas!

Nana and Miranda love

Helping me make chocolate chocolate chip cookies for Santa!

Bob showing James the Santa tracker.

Milk and cookies set!

Noche Buena 2015

Noche Buena is what Cubans call Christmas Eve. We always serve pork for dinner. Traditionally you'd have an entire pig roasted in a "Caja China" in a pit, but we made due with some well-seasoned pork tenderloin in the oven. Also, yucca in garlic sauce, rice and black beans, and salad.

Christmas Eve Clous

My mom, her boyfriend Bob, and his daughter Jen joined us this year. It was our first Christmas at the new house.

Mom, Bob, Miranda, Jen, James

Miranda loves Bob

Kevin making my mom feel awkward before dinner.

James actually helped me marinate the pork the night before. It came out great!

Dinner!

As usual, Miranda started dinner in her baby chair but...

... ended up on our laps.

We exchanged a few presents too. Usually just the adults do presents Christmas Eve (the kids have Christmas morning) but Jenny had to leave so she gave the kids an awesome Mr. Potato Head and a tiny mechanical puppy.

James re: Mr. Potato Head "We have like this at school!"

Puppy wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Hugging my big 4-year-old boy!

After I put Miranda to bed, Kevin, Bob, and I took James on a short little walk around the neighborhood to see people's Christmas lights. Did I mention it was like 70 degrees?

Christmas lights walk

Christmas Lights walk

Then it was time to prepare for Santa! 

James put out the milk and chocolate chocolate chip cookies we made together.

And then Kevin and James opened the chimney flue so Santa could come down.

And off to bed because Santa won't come unless you're sleeping!

Miranda's First Noche Buena 2014

My mother came over for Noche Buena and Christmas morning. She made us a delicious meal of pork, Moros, and yucca. We set up the dining table in the living room so we'd have enough room and so we could eat by the tree. And of course, since we dress up that night, I took a bunch of glamour shots. That's normal right?

My mom is kind of stealing the picture, but Miri can't wear makeup yet.

Two Cuban cuties!

We kept shouting "Candy!" so James would smile. Ridiculousness.

Miranda eats quite a lot now, and she loved her first Noche Buena feast. She gobbled up a ton of pork and slept really well. (In the bed with me still, disaster.)

Noche Buena meal

Thanks for cooking Nana!



Bob brought a modern-day smartphone viewfinder!

The kids got baths, and once they were in pajamas we told James to put cookies and milk out for Santa. We used the cookies he decorated with Sarah. I was maybe going to tell him about the Wise Men, but he barely understood Santa as it was.

Cookies for Santa!

Nana snuggles

• Christmas on Cape Cod 2013
• Noche Buena & Christmas at home 2012

Noche Buena & Christmas 2012

My mother came over for the holiday on the 23rd. It was a hard day for us because James has been sleeping poorly, which means the adults in the home are also sleeping poorly. On this particular day James woke up at 3:40 am, so Kevin was awake with him until 5:30 am, and then we switched-- he returned to bed, and I stayed up with James until his nap around 8 or 9 am. It was the second day he'd slept poorly so we weren't surprised. So we took it easy and ordered some pizza and drank some wine and beer.

Christmas Eve morning wasn't much better sleep-wise, but Mom cooked a big Cuban feast of pork, yucca, black beans and rice, so at least our bellies were happy. We moved the table to the living room because we don't have a dining room and the kitchen is small. Plus it's nice to eat near the Christmas tree.

Our second Christmas as a family of three

Our side of the Christmas Eve dinner table

After dinner, James had black beans on his face, hands, hair, and even inside his ears, so my mother gave him a bath and put him in pajamas before we opened presents.

Bathtime with Nana

Possibly the cutest naughtiest elf I have ever seen

We kept the presents modest because James is pretty young and doesn't understand what's going on yet. He's rapidly building vocabulary lately, so he mainly got books to learn more English and Spanish nouns. His Nana also got him a baby laptop though and he was so taken by it that he played with it for 30 minutes, repeating what it said and pointing to the pictures, and at one point he even fell over from giggling at it. Pretty awesome.

A finger puppet book!

Reading some "Go Diego, Go!" in Spanish

Santa Nana reveals the baby laptop

It was also a very special Christmas this year because Kevin recently won his fantasy football league championship. So we invited his star player, Arian Foster, to dinner. No, that didn't happen. Kevin did purchase and engrave a trophy for himself. I fully supported this and even went shopping with him for the cup. I also helped with the announcement to his fellow competitors.

Kevin, his cup, Arian, and me-- cheers!

James's First Nochebuena 2011

Clous at Christmas

Nochebuena is the Spanish-Cuban-Latin American Christmas Eve. Mom came over and made pork loin, yuca (also called cassava), and black beans and rice. We don't have a dining room, so we moved our kitchen table to the tree. We were going to secure James's seat to a chair but he was just as happy on the floor getting bits of food from Nana. I know he's not a puppy. After, we opened presents in the evening like we've been doing in my family for a few years. Among other things, James bought Nana a biography based on his voluminous book licking. 

Nana feeding James yuca


Nochebuena meal


James opening a present from family


James opening his first present from Santa


The Cubans


Nice try, James

Christmas in NJ 2006

We spent Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) at Yohana and Rick's place with Madison and Brian and the rest of their family. We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve too. Christmas we stayed in the apartment.

 

Christmas Eve family picture

 

Rick tracking Santa on Norad

 

Getting ready for dinner

 

Kids table

 

Yummy Cuban food

 

With Madison and Brian

Yohana's family