Christmas with Padre Bebé

Thanks to Christmas Eve falling on a Thursday, thus turning the holiday into basically a four-day event, we celebrated a lot this year.

We started off with the traditional Christmas Eve celebration at my parents' house- a fantastic meal of cheeses, shrimp, mussels, olives and wine, followed by our annual gift exchange. The only family picture that we got throughout the various celebrations was taken that evening, so I feel like I should share it...

After the gift exchange, we all went to 8pm Mass together. It was a beautiful Mass, made even more beautiful by the fact that Juan Pablo was really good throughout the whole thing, even though it went way past his bedtime.

Christmas morning, we all opened our gifts from Santa. Juan Pablo was so happy with all his gifts that he wanted to play with each one immediately after opening, and didn't care about the fact that there were more gifts for him under the tree. As a result, opening gifts took a considerable amount of time, and there was one gift that did not get opened at all until Juan Pablo rediscovered it under the tree later that afternoon. His favorite gift of the morning was his new Go Diego Go! Rescue Center. It come with a helicopter, a truck, and several animals for Diego to rescue. Since Juan Pablo is currently obsessed with the show, this was a huge hit.

We had a nice breakfast, complete with our traditional cinnamon rolls from E-bo, as Juan Pablo calls Aunt Barb, and a lot of fun playing with all the new toys...at least the ones that had been opened up to that point.After naptime, we went to East Lansing to celebrate with Jeff's family. After a turkey dinner, there were even more gifts to open. Jeff and I ended up opening most of Juan Pablo's, because he was having way too much fun playing with his cousins, Seth and Luke. The three boys got matching pajamas from Oma and Opa, and though trying to get three toddlers in a picture together is nearly impossible, we succeeded!

Saturday morning we went back to East Lansing for more fun at the science museum with Seth and Luke. Juan Pablo got soaked in bubbles, ran around a lot, and generally had a great time. We had a nice lunch at Oma and Opa's, courtesy of Tio Mykal, and then came back to Ann Arbor for a much-needed nap.

Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family, we had dinner at my parents' house again so that Jeff, Juan Pablo and I could open the gifts that Santa had accidentally left there for us...and so that we could give my parents a gift that Santa had accidentally left at our house for them. And though Santa was clearly not on top of his game this year, it did give us another excuse to have more fun together. And this was also where Juan Pablo got what definitely takes the prize as "Coolest Gift of 2009".

Juan Pablo and I go to daily Mass as often as possible, and since I started taking him, he's always been a huge fan of priests. He especially loves Fr. John, at the chapel where we attend daily Mass, and Fr. Ed, our priest at Christ the King, and he never lets us leave after Mass without going to say hi to the priest and give him a high five. Juan Pablo is also very familiar with the Mass at this point. When he was only about fifteen months, he not only could say, "Alleluia", but also knew where in the Mass the Alleluia was sung ,and would often beat the priest to starting it off at daily Mass. Since then he's learned most other Mass parts, and can even sing the entire "Sanctus" in Latin. During the consecration, he often will mimic what the priest is doing, holding up an imaginary host or chalice along with the priest. Earlier in the summer, he started playing "Mass" at home, wearing one of my scarves as a stole, and calling himself "Padre Bebe". My mom then had the great idea to make him a Mass kit for Christmas, so for months she and my dad looked for the different pieces, and made vestments for our little would-be priest. Santa delivered the completed Mass kit on Christmas, and it is gorgeous. Juan Pablo could not have been more excited. He immediately put on his vestments, and started celebrating a "Mass". We all received communion several times, and sang a lot of Glorias and Amens. This is definitely a gift that he will enjoy and treasure for a long time.

And since we still have a few more days until Epiphany, Merry Christmas to you all!