Christmas Day

Ever since I was born, we celebrated Christmas Eve and it started around 9pm. On that evening we had extended family and friends over for a traditional Cuban Christmas meal that consisted of roasted pork, black beans and rice, yucca, and tomato with avacado salad. Dessert was flan, guayava with cream cheese and turron. After dinner my mom and my aunts would wash dishes, then serve dessert. Once we were done, it was on to opening gifts. There were so many people at our house and so many presents that you could hardly walk into the living room. The gifts took up half the room. At least that's how I remember it. I got the pictures to prove it! HA. My mom would call out peoples names and you stacked your presents till there was nothing under the tree. Then she would go around the room, one present at a time, so everyone could see what the others had gotten. My cousin and I would see who had the highest stack between us.

It would be pretty late and since I'm an only child, as is my cousin...we were sent to bed to await Santa's arrival. We would force ourselves to sleep, not because we weren't tired, but we were just too excited. Sometime in the middle of the night or should I say some ungodly time after 1 or 2 am... we would be woken up to my mom squealing ( my mom was into Christmas as much as we were) that Santa had just left the building. Santa had one up on Elvis in our house.
We then would jump out of bed to see even more gifts. Mind you, it was just the 2 of us, but by the amount of toys, you would think there were more like 6 kids in that house. My cousin had one side and I had the other. Plus you could tell who's was who's because he was a boy and he got the cool stuff I always wanted but I was a girl. Its was the 60's.

It was sensory overload. You see... when we walked into our living room it looked like we walked into a toy store. Our toy store. You mix in the gifts that we had just opened few hours ago to the Santa stuff..well..hence the sensory overload.
Everyone would go home by the time the birds were chirping (if it were summer or not a winter in Chicago) and my dad, mom, grandmother and I would finally go to bed. I was always up really early ( I had napped, remember?) playing with toys and the day was to relax. If my mom didn't take me to midnight mass on Christmas Ever we would go in the morning after breakfast. She would hardly sleep either.

The year I learned there was no Santa ( my dad confirmed what all the other kids at school told me and ridiculed me for..I was 11) was not only the end of Christmas as I knew it but it ruined it for my mom as well. As I said, I'm an only child, my innocence gone and with it went my mom's enthusiasm for Christmas. That was till Damien came along.

David's holiday traditions were totally different than mine. So we compromised. He is the youngest of 5, so the whole Santa thing went out the window for him early in life. He just couldn't believe that I held on to my belief in Santa for that long. Nor could he believe there were so many presents for just one child. Though he did see the pictures. I know the word spoiled was used a lot. I say jealousy.

The compromise??? In the early days we had to hit up my MIL's house, then my aunts( my mom an dad had divorced and my grandmother went to live with her daughters), then my mom's house. That's 3 full dinners and gift opening..Then to our house put Damien to bed to then set up Santa stuff. Santa came in the morning and the gifts were unwrapped, because Santa didn't wrap his presents. But there would still be the sensory overload, because the presents that he had already seen were there with the new stuff Santa brought. David thought it was bad to wake up kids in the middle of the night.
As Damien got older and Tony and Anjelika came along, (we also moved first to Florida then California) Christmas Eve was at my house and my mom would sleep over so she could still be a part of Santa. God she loved Christmas! I would combine the food David grew up with and also mine and I would spend all day cooking a huge feast. Till the year I decided to only cook Cuban food since that's what everyone ate. Christmas day was recoup day, pajama day, eat leftovers and watch the kids play.

Today....my aunts don't celebrate Christmas since my grandmother and dad died. My MIL moved out of state, David's siblings are scattered, and my mom passed away. It is just the immediate family. There still is Santa for Tony and Anjelika. The way they see it Damien had Santa till he got married soooo since he is just about 6 years older than Tony...they have a few more Santa years to go. This year they didn't expect it.
But Santa did come..meager but he came. Anjelika got underwear and socks, 2 t-shirts, necklace and a painting I did for her. Tony got 2 shirts and a toiletry travel bag so he can carry that stuff while he is on tour. I had it full with stuff, and a small painting I made for him too.

Damien and Emilie have followed suit with the sensory overload.....This year we gave them their space and didn't stop by on Christmas morning. After all they did the same thing we did many years ago and travelled to 3 homes then leave late to then set up Santa.

And though we weren't there, Emilie was thoughtful and sent me this....
It let us have a glimpse into Desi's Santa morning






Following the family tradition. He is an artist and a musician.