Catch ya on the flip side!

So this will be my last post for the year while we're still in the states, for on Thursday we're off to Panama for a while. I refer to it as our winter home (as short as winters are in Austin). There we'll be catching some rays, eating juicy pineapples, swimming in the ocean(s), and drinking some obnoxious umbrella drinks. Okay, so maybe not every day, but at least for a couple of days!

So Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and Happy Hannukah to all our friends and family! May the New Year bring you lots of health, adventure, and joy!

Cadle Christmas

This weekend we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. My parents came with their two dogs, and we opened gifts and ate... and ate... and ate. (I'm still eating the leftovers.) Ham is so delicious!

Mateo was very excited about his Handy Manny workbench. We had to build it immediately after it was opened. Thanks to Mima and Papa for gifting it to him! And thanks for Rafi's and my gifts, as well. I think I'm set for kitchen gadgets - can't wait to use the garlic slicer. Rafi's new iPod alarm clock was MUCH nicer to wake up to compared to his old one.

Smith Christmas

An evening spent with friends to celebrate Christmas is always nice. Mateo was in HEAVEN with his official Thomas the Train tent and trains (Percy and Gordan).

Connor was likely more interested in the paper.And Rafi was all snuggly in his University of Texas Snuggie.Thanks, Tina and Greg, for all our goodies! And a special thanks to Tina for teaching me how to crochet. That was the best gift ever!

Okay, okay... I procrastinated.

So I missed updating about Thanksgiving. And I missed updating about Christmas. And I missed updating about New Year's! What's important is that I'm doing it now, right? So here goes...

Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house in Stephenville (the land of cowboys, UFOs, and football). We had someone extra at our Thanksgiving table, too - my brother's fiancee May. We welcome this talented pianist to the family, for we sure could use some talent around here! ;-) The Thanksgiving dinner was the norm and delicious as always.


Christmas. For the second time in our 6+ year marriage, we had a Christmas tree! We hosted Christmas at our house since Mateo is getting older. We were very fortunate to have my Mimi (my mom's mom) join us, too. For the first time in a long time I was very into Christmas this year. I enjoyed all the shopping, decorating, and meal planning. We combined both Cadle and Campana traditions together to create our own. On Christmas Eve Rafi and I cooked a Panamanian style meal with Panamanian tamales, ham, arroz con guandu, green beans, and homemade bread. I also surprised Rafi with his mom's recipe for arroz con leche. Everything was delicious, though those tamales were more trouble than they were worth. I would post a photo of it, but since we were elbow deep in corn and banana leaves, we didn't take any. I think next year I'll try to order some frozen ones online. On Christmas Day I roasted 6 cornish hens and served them with mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade bread and more ham. Christmas morning was not what we expected. Mateo was a little overwhelmed with everyone looking at him, so he clung to my side for a while. He ate the mini cookies from his stocking while everyone else opened gifts. Once he warmed up to the idea, he opened his which included a red retro kitchen from Santa, lots of play food, and an Elmo Live.

New Year's Eve. We had the Smith family over (Tina and Greg and half of Greg's family from Michigan) to celebrate. The celebrations aren't the same as they used to be due to having little kids ranging from 3 months to 22 months, but we enjoyed it just the same. The food was delicious (smattering of breaded greenbeans, mini empanadas, flautas, mini pizzas, veggies, and cheese and crackers along with rice krispie treats and cookies, of course). And the wine was great. Midnight proved pretty funny as Mary (Greg's step-mother) had some difficulty opening the champagne bottle in time. But after what can only be described as some funky dance moves with some hardcore tugging, she got it open.

So there. I did it. Now you're all caught up. :-) And for your further pleasure, I'll tack on a photo of our attempt at a family portrait.