Merry [fake] Christmas!

Well, tonight is the last night Mom and Dad Pascoal are going to be here in CA. We are so sad that they are leaving, but so glad they were able to be here for so long. We celebrated Christmas with them today, since we won't be able to all be together when Christmas comes this December. We've had a lot of fun building it up. The boys have been anticipating it. Jeremy's been telling people (even strangers) that "it's almost fake Christmas". Of course, they don't know that he's actually talking about something we've really been planning!

We all met up at Gina & Dan's this afternoon for the big celebration. Since they have an artificial Christmas tree (actually, they have 2!), they put up all their Christmas decorations early. So the atmosphere was great! Everyone brought one gift with them - and it could only cost $1. Then we did a gift exchange where we chose presents based on age. It worked out great for the kids - except poor Alyssa, whose 2 presents were both swapped - one by Aiden and one by Jeremy. She was very nice about it.

We did our traditional Christmas activity: playing games! We played the Christmas game, which is of course a staple. And there were tons of other games going on. There was the Bean Game (a must-play), Ticket to Ride (3 times!), Scrabble, Rummikub, Christmas Trivia, Democrazy, Encore, Taboo...possibly some others that are being forgotten here. And then the other Christmas Day staple - football - was on. So it really did feel like an actual holiday! Too bad we all have to go back to work tomorrow...

One of the highlights was Vito's famous cheesecake. He came through at fake Thanksgiving with pumpkin cheesecake. And for fake Christmas he didn't disappoint...*drum roll, please*... Peppermint Cheesecake! As Rachel Ray would say: yum-O! [made with Andes mints]

We almost stayed late enough to celebrate fake New Year...but left before the stroke of midnight. Oh well - guess we did enough fake celebrating for one year!

Us with Aiden during the gift exchange

An AWESOME $1 gift: Twinkie the Kid

Aiden with "Santie Auntie" Gina

Jeremy and Jocelyn



Jeremy choosing his gift

Vito and Dionne at the gift exchange


Playing the Christmas Game

The boys with the Christmas tree



Bean Game!


Heath and Angie