| Merry Christmas from the Los Rodriguez / McClure households! This post is a little out of order because we have a ton of pre-Christmas events to share, but those things can wait. We’ve had such an amazing couple of days! Last Wednesday my aunt Regena arrived in Nashville and then on Christmas eve eve my aunt Jane and uncle Bruce drove into town and they brought the letters that we were reading over Thanksgiving between my grandmother and grandaddy again! Jane and I immediately set to work scanning them – we are almost finished scanning two whole albums, which is SO EXCITING! We’ll be posting plenty more on here soon enough! | Feliz Navidad por parte de los Rodriguez y los McClure! Este post esta un poco desordenado en cuanto a timepo porque tenemos unos cuantos eventos previos a la navidad que aun debemos compartir, pero eso puede esperar. Hemos tenido un par de dias fantasticos! El miercoles pasado, mi tia Regena llego a Nashville y unos dias antes de navidad mis tios Jane y Bruce llegaron y trajeron con ellos mas cartas de mis abuelos, del grupo que habiamos leido en accion de gracias! Jane y yo de inmediato nos pusimos a trabajar en escanearlas – y ya casi terminamos de escanear dos albumes completos, lo que es MUY EMOCIONANTE! Postearemos muchas cartas pronto! |
| On Christmas Eve my aunt Melissa and Andre arrived in Nashville just in time to head off to the church for the candlelight Christmas Eve service – my favorite service of the year. I brought my camera along because a dear friend of mine couldn’t be in Nashville for the first year ever to join her family at the candlelight service and I promised I’d take a few photos for her once all the candles were lit. It was just as beautiful as ever – I do love Second Pres. | En noche buena, mis tios MElissa y Andre llegaron a Nashville justo a tiempo para ir camino a la misa de navidad – mi celebracion favorita del ano. Lleve mi camara porque una querida amiga que no podia estar en Nashville para la navidad , por primera vez me pidio que sacara fotos asi ella podria imaginarse estar ahi. Fue todo muy bonito como siempre – me encanta la iglesia Segunda Presbiteriana. |
| After the service we all piled into two cars and drove out to Monells at the Manor for their Christmas Eve Bluegrass Celebration – the second year in a row. This may be my new favorite tradition – Monells is always good but this particular meal is insanely delicious. The bluegrass band the Howling Brothers played during the appetizers (served family style – all you can eat!), then they took a break while we ate the entrees. Such food!! Corn pudding, pork, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, ham, pineapple bake, rolls, green beans etc. etc. The band picked back up again when dessert was served – white chocolate mousse with a candied pecan ball and coffee. Unreal. Another incredible Christmas eve! | Despues del la misa, nos subimos todos en dos autos y nos fuimos rumbo a Monells en el Mansion para su celebracion de Navidad – por segundo ano consecutivo. Esta es talvez mi nueva tradicion favorita – Monells siempre es bueno per esta comida en particular es extremadamente deliciosa. La banda de bluegrass, The Howling Brothers, toco durante el aperitivo (servido al estilo familiar, todo lo que puedas comer!), luego tomo un descanso para comer junto con todo el mundo. Que comida!! Budin de choclo, cerdo, pollo rostizado, pure, jamon, cocido de pina, pan, porotos verdes, etc, etc.. La banda volvio a tocar cuando se servia el postre – moose de chocolate blanco con una bola de nueces y cafe para el que quisiera. Increible. Otra cena de noche buena para no olvidar! |
| On Christmas morning we packed up the doggos and headed out to my parents’ house just in time for a delicious brunch that my mom, gma and aunt Regena cooked up. My mom is amazing – she’s been cooking like crazy all week and it’s always such great food. After brunch we called my aunt Marian via FaceTime on my parents’ big TV and chatted for a bit, then did the same with Ian and Andrea who spent Christmas in Chicago. After catching up with the out-of-towners we opened presents – always a great time! I won’t go through all of the presents we got but I will say that one of my favorite gifts was a lovely album that my grandma made for me – she always makes such wonderful gifts for all the Jacobs cousins. This year she made a personal album for each of us with photos from our childhood – beginning with baby photos right up to the most recent photos. It’s really amazing – there’s one photo of both of my grandpas holding me as a baby that made me tear up. I do miss them! Such a great gift from gma. | La manana del dia de navidad, tomamos a los perros y nos fuimos rumbo a casa de mis papas justo a tiempo para un desayuno delicioso que mi mama, abuela, y tia Regena prepararon. Mi mama es increible – ha estado cocinando como loca toda la semana y todo le ha salido muy rico. Despues del desayuno llamamos a mi tia Marian por FaceTime usando la television de mi papa y conversamos un poco, y luego hicimos lo mismo con Ian y Andrea, quienes pasaron la navidad en Chicago. Despues de ponernos al dia con la familia, no pusimos a abrir regalos – siempre entretenido! No voy a decir cada uno de los regalos que recibi, pero uno de mis favoritos es un album de fotos de mi abuela – ella siempre prepara regalos maravillosos para sus nietos. Este ano hizo un album personal para cada nieto con fotos de nuestra ninez – comenzando con fotos de bebes hasta fotos recientes. Es realmente impresionante – hay una foto de mis 2 abuelos conmigo en sus brazos que me hizo llorar. Los extrano! Que gran regalo de mi abuela. |
| For the rest of the day we all did our own thing – Melissa, Andre, Javier and Bruce worked on the puzzle while Jane and I continued our scanning with the letters, Gena took a nap, dad watched TV and mom and gma pretty much spent the whole day cooking. At the end of the day we put on a few old family Christmas videos – one with Ian when he was 2-years-old that was maybe the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Then we all sat down to a HUGE Christmas feast!! Andre makes amazing ribs and he and Melissa brought up a huge batch of them for Christmas dinner. We had cornbread, mashed potatoes, cranberry apple bake, and green beans to go along with the ribs – I swear I don’t think I’ve ever had so much good food packed into a 3 day period! | El resto del dia cada uno hizo lo suyo – Melissa, Andre, Javier y Bruce trabajaron en un puzzle mientras Jane y yo scaneabamos cartas, Gena tomo una siesta, papa vio tele y mama y mi abuela siguieron cocinando. Al final del dia nos pusimos a ver videos antiguos de navidades pasadas – uno con Ian cuando tenia 2 anos y era lo mas tierno que existe. Luego nos sentamos a otro festin de navidad!! Andre preparo unas costillas deliciosas junto con Melissa y trajeron un monton para la cena de navidad. Hicimos pan de maiz, pure, cocido de cranberry y manzana, y porotos verdes para acompanar las costillas – les juro no creo que haya comido tanta comida en 3 dias antes! |
| And that’s that!! It was truly a very merry Christmas for all of us – I still can’t believe we had so much of our family here! We were really missing Javier’s family and Ian and Andrea, but thank goodness for technology so that we could chat with them and see their faces on the screens. We hope everyone had a safe, happy and joyous Christmas celebration!! And stay tuned – tons more coming up about pre-Christmas activities and post-Christmas revelry! | Y eso es todo!! Fue en verdad una dulce navidad para todos nosotros – aun no puedo creer que tanta familia vino a visitarnos! Extranamos mucho a la familia de Javier y a Ian y Andrea, pero gracias a la tecnologia pudimos conversar con todos y ver sus caras en la pantalla. Esperamos que todos hayan tenido una navidad segura y entretenida!! Esten al tanto para mas actividades pre-navidad y post-navidad! |
Los Rodriguez Life 
One response to “Merry Christmas!!”
Nice post! I’m glad you all had a merry Christmas! Looking forward to seeing u in a couple weeks!!