Christmas Eve with the Valdezes

When you get married, your family expands. That's a good thing because the more the merrier, right? But during holidays, it can become a liability because you have to choose which side to spend your Noche Buena without making the other side feel bad. Good thing my family does not usually have big Christmas dinners at home -- we just have our usual dinner, hear mass, go home, eat the leftovers and sleep...bumabawi na lang kami on New Year's Eve -- so we have Noche Buena with Richard's family.

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2007 was our first Christmas since we got married so we hosted the Christmas dinner at our house in Sta. Rosa. Last year was my brother-in-law, Eric's turn.

Aly couldn't stop eating this: nachos with meat sauce and cheese.

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The autumn-themed Christmas tree.

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Aly's first gift for the night.

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My little girl and I wore matching outfits that night. These are the dresses that I mentioned in my other post. Thank you, Nino!

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Pre-dinner pictures.

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Now, let's see what Santa Aly brought for her lola Lilia, tita Lani, mama Tata and ninong Eric. First on the "hot seat" is lola Lilia...

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...tita Lani...

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..mama Tata...

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...and ninong Eric.

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Next, it was Aly's turn again. She had so many gifts to open, we had to do them in batches! Ang saya!

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Aly's first gift from mommy and daddy!

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A new organ!

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My sisters-in-law, Tata and Lani.

After Aly's first set of gift-opening, it was Eric and Tata's turn to give their gifts.

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This is our 2nd family picture ever. The first one was taken during our wedding.

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With another gift from mommy and daddy.

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The last gift that Aly opened was the "secret gift" from Santa :)

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Thank you, Eric and Tata for your gifts! Thank you also to all the titas and titos who gave Christmas gifts to Alyannah. You made our little princess very happy :)