Xmas Eve Eve and Eve

Shy little Maxine has turned a new leaf. Suddenly, she doesn't seem to be afraid of house guests or family members, even at their houses. It has been such a pleasure to see her being her cute happy self with everyone! Pictured above is my best girlfriend, Iris, who is due to give birth to her first child in a few weeks. She had been wanting to hold Maxine without upsetting her and it finally happened!

Christmas Eve was spent at my mother-in-law's house a half a mile away in Altadena. Also there were my sis-in-law Rosy, in-laws Miriam and Ricardo and their son, my only nephew, Little Ricky, who is too precious for words and loves his Aunt Sarah. He was dressed as Santa. He's only 12 days older than Maxine but is so much heavier and is already starting to try to crawl, slaps your palm, dances on your lap and can put his own pacifier in his mouth. He's very advanced!

For Xmas Eve dinner, I was responsible for making dessert. I chose to make Giada De Laurentiis' Panettone Trifle. It was good, very rich, really easy to make (no cooking required!). Now that I've discovered the ease and versatility of trifles, I'm going to make them more often.






We did lots of karaoke, too. Here is my brother James and his sweetheart Allie. They showed up later on in the evening.I got new jammies! We stayed late opening tons of gifts. Raquel got to open Maxine's presents. What a good helper she is. It was a really lovely night.