Wonderful time with family and friends

I hope everyone had a wonderful week celebrating with family and friends. We had a great time!!!

I've never spent so much time in the kitchen like I did last week. When it comes to the kitchen, I've never had a good reputation, lol. Whenever my family comes, they even bring their own pots to cook, lol. I just don't like to complicate my life too much. I prefer simple dishes. Latin food is too much work and is not the healthiest one either. I do make excellent rice, lol

Anyway, this was the first time my friend and her family were coming to visit. They came from Maryland. I wanted to make them a nice meal to welcome them. I spent the whole day in the kitchen preparing everything. Very simple meal: black beans, rice, chicken breast, salad and (3)ricotta cheesecake for dessert. My friend couldn't believe it! She knew about my reputation so she was very impressed. She said I'm not allowed to say anymore that I don't know how to cook. Dinner was delicious!!! So, the rest of the week, I was in the kitchen cooking with her :)

My dad came with them too. I think we all had a great time together. All we did was eat, drink and listen to music the whole week. It was nice!!! We were so involved in spending time together that we forgot to take family pictures on Christmas Eve.

At least we took a picture of our meal. I only made the rice, :) That turkey, I had it in the freezer since Thanksgiving. I won that turkey at a supermarket. I didn't know how to make it. My friend didn't know how to make it either so she called her mom in DR and she gave her all the instruction over the phone. My mom tried telling me over the phone also, but I was just laughing :)



Here we have turkey, potato salad (we call it Russian salad-I don't know why), baby ribs, steak and rice with green pigeon peas. It was mostly meat. We don't really eat meat, but that's all our guests eat. It's a Latin American thing. A meal without meat, it's not a meal :) They didn't eat the turkey. We still have turkey in the fridge.



Here we are with our friend Laura that came to have dinner with us.










Here are our friends: Rosy, Susanita, Fernando y Mafer (short for Maria Fernanda)






Here I am with my dad. Now you can see where I get the looks, lol. Well, I actually look more like my mom.








Here is Gaby enjoying some time with Abuelo (grandpa).








Santa came!!!! and he brought a lot of things!!! This year we were reusing/re-gifting. I had a bunch of books, DVDs and a Leap Pad that were used but looked like brand new. We wrapped them all for the girls. They loved them!!!

Gaby didn't get the telescope that he wanted. Santa had ordered it online and didn't find out until two days before that it was out of stock and it was not going to be available until Feb. Santa left some $$$ so he can start saving for it. He also got two books. Grandpa got him an electronic speaking dictionary. Plus, he received three Barnes $ Nobles gift cards. Of course he was happy.



Gaby asked Santa for a bed for Speedy. So, here is Speedy enjoying his new gift. He is chewing the little pillow, lol. He also got a bone.

Mokis was not behind. Gaby asked Santa for some treats for him and he got it.



Ok, I think you guys are probably bored by now. My next post will be about some projects that I'm working on.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve