YOUNG WOMEN CORNER: COME FOLLOW ME

This week I decided to create some handouts for the Young Women "Come Follow Me" Curriculum for the month.

The principles the youth are focusing on this month is "Marriage and Family".

The handouts below directly coordinate to the lesson outline...

"HOW CAN I STRENGTHEN MY FAMILY?"

Feel free to print off and use for your lessons!

(you can download them by right clicking on the picture and selecting "save image as"...

you can copy and paste the images in a word document )

YOUNG WOMEN CORNER: COME FOLLOW ME

This week I decided to create some handouts for the Young Women "Come Follow Me" Curriculum for the month.

The principles the youth are focusing on this month is "Marriage and Family".

The handouts below directly coordinate to the lesson outline...

"WHY IS THE FAMILY IMPORTANT?"

Feel free to print off and use for your lessons!

(you can download them by right clicking on the picture and selecting "save image as"...you can copy and paste

the images in a word document or download a single image PDF by clicking on the links below) 

Above is a simple front and back bookmark that was inspired by The Family: A Proclamation to the World

For a PDF download of the bookmark (single front and back) CLICK HERE

Above is a card that you could hand out to the young women during or at the end of your lesson.

The girls could write down action items they could personally do in order to defend the family (as suggested in the outline).

For a PDF download of the journaling card CLICK HERE

Why we love Mariachi Music in my Family

"...the first mariachis did not read their music, they felt it." Jeff Nevin

There is just something in Mariachi Music that sings to the souls of all those in my family...from the youngest to the oldest. Mariachi's and Pinata's are our childhood. We all have our favorite songs and the one in the video above is my favorite. At about 1:33 in the video you will see two of my cousins, Elpidia and Ofelia or Pete and Faye as they are affectionately known, singing along with the Mariachi. And in the very left corner you see my own beautiful sister giving out a yell Mariachi style! We had a blast at this party and I'll share more photos in another post. For now enjoy the video. The lyrics are below and I have tried, as best I can, to translate the song.

Lyrics to El Rey :
(El Rey means The King)

Yo se bien que estoy afuera
 (I know well that I am outside)
Pero el dia que yo me muera
(But the day that I die)
Se que tendras que llorar.
(I know you will have to cry)
(Llorar y llorar, llorar y llorar)
(Cry and Cry, Cry and Cry)
Diras que no me quisistes
(You'll say you never loved me)
Pero vas a estar muy triste
(But you will be very sad)
Y asi te me vas a quedar.
(And that is the way you will stay)

Con dinero y sin dinero.
(With money or without money)
Yo hago siempre lo que quiero.
(I always do what I want)
Y mi palabra es la ley.
(And my word is the law)
No tengo trono ni reina.
(I don't have a throne nor a queen)
Ni nadie que me comprenda.
(Nor anyone that understands me)
Pero sigo siendo el rey.
(But I continue being The King)

Una piedra en el camino
(A stone in the road)
Me enseno que mi destino.
(Showed me my destiny)
Era rodar y rodar.
(Was to roll and roll)
(Rodar y rodar, rodar y rodar)
(Roll and Roll, Roll and Roll)
Tambien me dijo un arriero
(Also I've been told by a muledriver)
Que no hay que llegar primero
(That you don't need to arrive first)
Pero hay que saber llegar.
(But you need to know how to arrive)

(Chorus - Already translated above)
Con dinero y sin dinero.
Yo hago siempre lo que quiero.
Y mi palabra es la ley.
No tengo trono ni reina.
Ni nadie que me comprenda.
Pero sigo siendo el rey.

The meaning is lost a little bit when you translate it into English, but it's your basic love song. Guy meets girls, he screws something up and she kicks him to the curb, so that's why he says he is outside, he's outside of her life, but he knows that she is going to regret it and someday when he dies she is going to cry and cry and cry!! She'll lie to all her friends and pretend like he wasn't "all that" and she never really loved him but she's never going to get over him...or so he says :-)

Then he get's all macho and tells her that it doesn't matter if he has money or not cause he always does things his way (which is probably what got him into trouble in the first place!) And then he says that his word is the law...hmmm, maybe that's what got him into trouble? For some reason whenever any Mariachi sings that one line the women all swoon and go nuts, seriously, go back up and listen to them scream...women! We just love the bad guys *sigh*. Anyway, he goes on basically saying he doesn't need anyone when he says he doesn't have a throne or a queen and he's so misunderstood... but it doesn't matter cause he will always continue being the King!

Then he sings about a rock or a stone or a pebble he saw while on the road and he realized his destiny was to be like a rolling stone and roll and roll. You know, like the song, "Papa was a rolling stone. Where ever he went that was his home; and when he died....all he left us was alone!" Or like a rolling stone gathers no moss? Anyway basically he's saying "That's how I roll woman!"

Then he said he was told by an "arriero" which is a mule driver, I guess some guy that he stopped to chat with and complain about how his woman "done did him wrong"...anyway, this mule driver tells him, "you don't need to be the first to arrive, it's better to know when to arrive" or "it's better to make an entrance". I guess when you seek advice from a mule driver you get what you pay for as it sounds good and makes the song flow in Spanish, but it really doesn't make much sense to me? Any suggestions?

So that's the song in a nutshell. Oh...and go back up and watch it again and watch for the lady Mariachi! Gotta love her! I always wanted to be a Mariachi but sadly I can't sing or play an instrument or perform in public or wear blouses that you have to tuck into your skirt! Other than that though I could probably be a pretty good Mariachi!

Thank you to the Baldenegro Family for hosting the celebration of their parents 50th Wedding Anniversary and giving us all a chance to get together for a happy occasion for once.

Que Viva los Baldenegros...Long Live the Baldenegros!

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Have you ever picked up a book and then realized that laundry, shopping, television, eating, yes even BLOGGING could wait until you finished that book? Well that recently happened to me when I read the most amazing book, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats! When I got to the beginning of the very last chapter I put the book on my nightstand and turned off the light and finally went to sleep only because I was not ready for this book to end!

But more about the book itself in a later post, for now I want to write a post inspired by this book because as a member of the From Left to Write Book Club that is what we do. Not a review, but an inspiration! When Julia travels to Burma to search for her missing lawyer father, she discovers much more than she expected. Join From Left to Write on February 1 as we discuss The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. As a member of From Left to Write, I received a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

When I was a little girl, I could not imagine my parents ever having been any younger than they were right that very minute. I  just assumed they had been the same age forever just waiting around in limbo for me to be born. They had never been little babies, or toddlers, or preschoolers or teens or young adults. Nope, they had always just been the age they were then.

It was therefore very surprising to me to find out that they had had lives before I was even born!! *Gasp* What? No...I can't believe it. What do you mean, you remember when you went to school? What do you mean, you remember when you played with dolls and toy trucks? What do you mean, you had boyfriend/girlfriends before you married? It was just beyond my comprehension.

And then as I got older and I heard stories from my parents, or my aunts and uncles about various family events, adventures and/or secrets...well I was even more astounded! I think we just assume that nothing important could have happened prior to our being brought into this world.

But there were things that happened, marriages that took place and ended. Hearts that were broken, dreams that were shattered. Families that were formed. Loves that last forever. And I'm sure that I don't even know everything that happened in the past as yet. Every time our family gets together or I talk to a cousin or an aunt I learn something new.

This weekend I'm heading back to the homeland...our "tierra" as we would say in espanol. I'm heading back to Eloy, Arizona to attend the 50th Wedding Anniversary of my Cousin Mary Lou and her husband of 50 years, Fernando. This is a photo of them on their wedding day.

Family is so important and they are the ones that know us best. But even family doesn't know EVERY THING about us. We have secrets and there are secrets that we will never know.

In the book, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, Julia Win finds out exactly what I am writing about. She begins to find out the story of her father who went missing on the day after her graduation from law school. Her mother finds an unmailed love letter to a Burmese woman and the journey begins for Julia to find out the truth about why her father disappeared.

*****I wrote this post prior to leaving to Arizona to attend the Golden Wedding Anniversary. I just wanted to say that of course, again I learned new things about my family. The most important thing I learned is something I already knew but just had it reaffirmed for me..and that is THERE IS NOTHING LIKE FAMILY!

The Strength of a Family

In time of test, family is best. ~Burmese Proverb

There is nothing like family and I am so proud of mine. In the past few weeks, sons, daughters, in-laws and nieces and nephews have all banded together selflessly to help our aging parents.

My dad suffered a mini-stroke two weeks ago and we all realized that dad needed help and care. Everyone pitched in and we have had multiple family meetings to decide, with dad's input what would be best for him.

Dad will be making some changes in his living arrangement and I'm hoping this new arrangement will allow me to spend more time with him as he will be not too far from my office and I can visit him on my lunch hours and after work. I'll also be more available to help with taking him to doctor's appointments and shopping.

Not more than an hour ago my house was filled with my two brothers and their wives and my sister and her husband, myself and my mom to get mom's input on what her needs and desires are as far as her and my dad's family home that they own.

Mom also will be making some changes in her living arrangements as will I. It's going to be a rough couple of months with getting dad all situated in his new home and getting myself and my mom situated in our new home as well...so blogging time is going to be scarce, plus American Idol just started this week and neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night will keep this lady from watching her some American Idol!

Mostly I just want to record this moment in time for our family and how we all came together, no bickering, no jealousy, no demands....just everyone banding together to help our parents. Thanks to all my family members, I love you all and you are all the greatest treasure that I could have been blessed with!

Rough Start to 2012

It's been a rough start to the new year for me and for my family! That's makes it a little hard to be the happy-go-lucky person I normally am, hence the grumpy Care Bear picture. That's about how I feel right now.

My dad, who is 80 years old is my main concern. This past Saturday my son called me to tell me something was wrong.  Dad lives alone and up to now even though we all worry about him, he's been ok. My son checks on his "Tata" every day.

Saturday my son called and told me that he drove up and my dad's truck is wrecked and he went inside to check on Tata and couldn't understand anything that Tata was saying. Now normally, that's not odd because my dad's first language is Spanish and my son's only language is English. Dad sometimes forgets his grandson doesn't speak Spanish and will babble away at him in Spanish, therefore Son has picked up quite a bit of the language. But Son said he couldn't understand anything that Dad was saying, he said that Tata was just making noises.

So I rushed right over and saw that my dad's truck had both front tires flat and the step-side on the passenger side was now in the bed of the truck and the passenger side mirror was just hanging on by a wire. I tried to get Dad to explain to me what happened to his truck but it was really difficult to understand. He seemed totally calm and was just sitting there watching TV but still he wasn't clear on how the accident had happened.

He said he thought he hit a parked car and went up on the curb and he remembers braking and stopping his truck before it could hit a fence. He said the police came and so did the fire department and the EMT's checked him out and he was fine. They called a tow truck for him and gave him a ride home and he didn't think to call anyone to let them know what had happened.

Needless to say he scared the crap out of me and my son. On the way to Dad's house I had called my sister and left her a voice mail that something was wrong with Dad, so shortly after that my sister got there. The more that we talked to Dad the more that we realized that something was wrong. He was having a really hard time getting his thoughts together and an even harder time verbalizing them. Pretty soon he was just babbling, making incoherent sounds and you could see by looking into his eyes that he realized that what he was thinking and what he was trying to say was not what was coming out of his mouth.

We realized that he might be having a stroke so we decided to take him to emergency. On the way out of town I told my sister that Dad had mentioned he had not eaten and the day before he thought he had food poisoning and he had spent the day vomiting. I told her that we were probably going to be in emergency for hours and it would be a long time before he could eat so maybe we should stop and get him something to eat. I know it sounds weird, but I also know my dad and I know that lack of food and the drop in blood sugar can really affect him.

We got him a burger and even though he still wasn't making sense in speaking he happily ate it. By the time we got to emergency he was making sense off and on. It turns out he did have what is known as a Transient Ischemic Attack aka TIA Mini Stroke. They admitted him and he did spend the night but he was allowed to come home the next day.

Now it's up to my sister, my brothers and me and all the various spouses concerned, to decide what step to take next with Dad. The great thing that came out of this is that we've all come together and everyone is 100% on board with doing whatever it takes to take care of dad. I'm very proud of my siblings and their spouses. Time will tell what we end up doing for dad, but for now he's ok and at home and everyone is checking on him often.

But that's not the end of why 2012 is rough year. Earlier this week my daughter was assaulted by a woman while in the course of her job. My daughter manages a motel. Part of her job description is that when "guests" don't want to check out at check out time, my daughter is the one that has to go and convince them that they must go. Well this time when my daughter knocked on the door to speak with the "guest", the "guest" came out of the room and shoved my daughter! My daughter of course said, "Don't you touch me" and at this the "guest hauled off an punched my daughter in the face and a fist fight ensued!

I've never known my daughter to fight. To stand up for the rights of others...yes, as she did for this child, see story HERE. But I have never known her to fight physically with her fists! But from what she says she got the best of this woman and hurt her more than she was hurt herself. Not that I care about that other woman, what I care about was seeing my poor baby bruised and battered. She called me right after and told me her employer wanted her to go to Urgent Care, so I left work immediately and went with her. She had a huge bluish knot on her left temple and the bridge of her nose was swollen. Luckily she was okay physically, but they never did catch the woman who did this. It's amazing to me that people feel that they are entitled to check into a motel and not leave when they are supposed to and not only not leave but injure innocent employees of the motel who are just doing their job!

So then a couple of days later my sister goes to the doctor for a simple rash. The doctor gives her some antibiotics and pain meds as it is very painful and inflamed. Sister returns to the doctor a few days later and they decide they will have to drain the infection using needles and my poor sister never thought it was going to be so involved or so painful. She called me right afterwards, sobbing in tears from the pain! She's going to be ok, but she is still in a lot of pain.

So there you go...what's next? I hope that all this drama in the beginning of the year means that the rest of the year is going to be nice and smooth and peaceful for my whole family.

Family...you all be careful! We've had enough of emergency rooms, urgent care rooms and doctors!

Biscochos...a family tradition. Done for 2011!

Every year in our family we get together and bake Biscochos, a small, crispy cookie flavored with Anise, Cinnamon and Cloves. It's almost like a Mexican version of the Snickerdoodle. And it's very popular. One of my blogging buddies, Paula from Sweet Pea also made some recently. She calls them biscochitos. Her recipe calls for brandy! I never thought about adding Brandy.

We grew up eating these as children. Our Tia Nico would make batches and batches of these and everyone always went home with a big Folgers coffee can full of them. It wouldn't be Christmas to us without this cookie and without Tamales, which we are making next weekend.

Here's my mom, the Head Chef and Baker and her two lovely assistants, me and my sister. My sister had hurt her back a couple of days ago so she was barely able to move. She was mainly there for moral support and entertainment value!

Last year we had the whole family, including my brothers, their spouses and kids in an out throughout the day baking. It was a real family affair and you can see last years pictures HERE if you so desire. But this year because my sister had hurt her back and my mom has been suffering with pneumonia and bronchitis we figured we wouldn't make them this year, but at the last minute we said "What the heck!"

My sister's two boys, Sean and Isaac were there helping for a bit early on. Isaac brought his Ipod and played some wonderful music for us. The boy has great taste in music. Here's a few pictures of the boys with me, with my mom and with their mom.

Sean and me

Me with Isaac, he's my nephew and my Godson.

My mom and her grandson, Sean.

My Mom and her grandson Isaac.

My sister and her boys.

And here's the boys, helping? Brotherly love!

Ok, now we're ready to get busy. I like to get it started with some energy drink...in the form of Agavero Tequila! This is a delicious sipping tequila that my cousin Stella introduced me to. Unfortunately...right after this picture was taken my nephew/godson spilled it :-(

Oh well, no crying over spilt tequila when there's Biscochos to be made! Several years ago my daughter gave me this Pink KitchenAid mixer and I love it! It makes creaming the sugar, shortening and eggs a breeze. You just set it and forget it. Well except for having to scrape the sides now and again.

While this stuff is getting creamed, we sift all the dry ingredients together. Then we mix the dry into the wet slowly and you knead, knead, knead the whole thing. Then we roll softball size balls out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut with a little pizza cutter that has a curly edge, like a crimping edge. That's the little gizmo in the picture.

My daughter April had to work and didn't get to come and help and hang out with us. She always likes to use cookie cutters instead of the little crimpy pizza roller, so I made a special tray of Christmas Cookies just for her.

Then you bake and here's what you end up with!

These little guys are so good right out of the oven but they actually get better as they get cold and age. They get crispy and sweeter. We doubled the recipe and look how many it made! If you would like the recipe, please click HERE.

My mom was kinda dreading making them as they are a lot of work and she wasn't feeling up to Par and my own sis's back is broken. But between the three of us we accomplished another annual Biscochos bakeoff! Doesn't my mom look happy here? All the work was worth it just for this picture!

And so ends another lovely day in my life. Now I just have to get through a week of work and then we get to start all over in the kitchen and make Tamales next week. Tune in for that!

O For A World

1. O for a world where everyone
Respects each other's ways,
Where love is lived and all is done
With justice and with praise.

2. O for a world where goods are shared
And misery relieved,
Where truth is spoken, children spared,
Equality achieved.

3. We welcome one world family
And struggle with each choice
That opens us to unity
And gives our vision voice.

4. The poor are rich, the weak are strong,
The foolish ones are wise.
Tell all who mourn; outcasts belong,
Who perishes will rise.

5. O for a world preparing for
God's glorious reign of peace,
Where time and tears will be no more,
And all but love will cease.

Text: Miriam Therese Winter (1987)
Tune: AZMON CM

Summer Fun

So I notice everyone in Blogland is a little scarce this summer. Is it the heat keeping us away or all the fun we're having? Maybe a little of both? I know I've had air-conditioning woes at my house, but as of Friday the A/C man came and it's working great now...I was even a little bit chilly last night!

And I'm definitely having a wonderful summer. It seems like every weekend something has been happening. First there was Father's Day and a really nice BBQ at my brothers house where I got to spend time with some of my favorite people and pets!

Me, Melissa and Chorizo

Then came another BBQ at my brothers house for his son Fred Jr. We combined that BBQ with the 4th of July (actually it happened on the 3rd of July because in my small town we have our fireworks display On the 3rd). And again I got to see some special people...little people!

My niece Melissa and her cousin Maximiliano aka Max aka Maxie! And a little white kitten!

Then this weekend we had one of our favorite cousins from Arizona visit, Lydia, her daughter Daniella and her Daniella's husband and little boy and Lydia's son Mark and his cousin Alex (I think they were cousins, someone correct me if I'm wrong). We had two family get togethers, one on Saturday hosted by my cousin Steve and one on Sunday hosted by my sister and her husband at their home. We had lots of fun, lots of laughs, shared tons of memories and ate way too much! I've got photos to share but haven't downloaded them off of my camera yet, so stay tuned.

In the next few weeks we have birthdays for several members of the family....yours truly included. I'm having a fabulous get-a-way birthday to "Sin City" (Las Vegas) and I'm so excited about that. Then my niece is celebrating her 21st birthday.

So yes...I've been a little scarce in Blogland but it's only because I'm doing research and loving life so that I have even more to share with everyone. Oh...and I've lost 23 lbs now! Yay!

So what have you all been up to?

Cousins

This 3-day weekend was a very special one for my mom and for me as well. My cousins Mary Lou and her daughter Eliza came to visit us all the way from Parker, Arizona which is about a 6 hour drive, 360 miles! They arrived on Friday evening and left around 11am on Sunday morning. So we had all Saturday together!


Mary Lou is the daughter of one of my mom's sisters named Eliza. Eliza was born on November 6, 1919 and passed away on November 11, 1951 leaving behind three children; her daughter Maria Luisa (Mary Lou), and sons Florentino and Agustin aka Woody. This is Eliza. I took this photo last year in February when I was visiting Mary Lou's home in Parker. She had this portrait on the wall and this is a photo of a photo hence the glare of the flash.

 I also took the following picture which is the wedding photograph of Mary Lou and her husband Fernando. I believe she mentioned they will celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary in two years. Isn't Mary Lou gorgeous? She looks like a movie star! I love old wedding photographs!

Mary Lou named her daughter after her mother Eliza. My sister is also named Eliza. Here's a photo of Mary Lou and her daughter Eliza. Mary Lou is on the left, Eliza on the right and the woman in the middle is my own dear mom, Tomasa.

Mary Lou has 3 other children, Fernando Jr aka Sonny, Miguel aka Michael, Armando and of course Eliza aka Tweety. (She's gonna kill me for posting that nick-name!) She also had an adopted son Esteban aka Stevie who was killed in a motorcycle accident 13 or 14 years ago.

Anyway...they came to visit my mom and on Saturday we all gathered at my house and we had a wonderful day catching up and sharing news, gossip and insights. Here's some photos:

First off a picture of cousin Mary Lou and my brother Federico aka Fred (we have a lot of aka's in our family, everyone gets a nickname, don't ask what mine is!)

Next, one with yours truly in it. Starting left to right Alyssa, she's the daughter of my cousin Maria Elena aka Mary Helen (she's the one in the beige jacket right next to Alyssa) then me in the background in the gray sweater and Eliza in the red sweater.

Next we have the same grouping except my own dear sister, the other Eliza has now taken my spot in the background. So we have Alyssa, Mary Helen, Eliza and Eliza :-)

This shot was just too pretty to pass up! We giggled and laughed for well over two hours outside. (Don't tell anyone, but we're possibly planning a all-girl, cousins-only trip to Vegas in September or October of this year. Shhhhh, it's a secret.)

Then we have a picture of my mom and her niece, my cousin...Mary Lou. This photo was taken the following morning at breakfast.

Then a photo of my mom with her grand-niece Eliza, her sister's namesake.

Then one final shot outside the restaurant before a tearful farewell. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Pictured here are my sister Eliza, my mom, cousin Mary Lou and yours truly on the end. There is nothing as wonderful as family and especially cousins.

Cousins are the 1st friends of your life. Cousins are there as childhood friends. 

No one will every understand your crazy family like your cousins. 

Thank you Cousin Mary Lou and Cousin Eliza for coming this weekend; for taking that long, long, long car trip just to come and make my mom happy. We Love you ladies!

A Birthday, A Recipe and Family for Biscocho Day!

This was a super busy weekend for being the last shopping weekend before Christmas. We also saw record rainfall here in Kern County. We broke the record last set in 1931!! Unbelievable! Unfortunately we aren't prepared for that much rain and right now we have a lot of flooding and fear of the Lake Isabella Dam bursting...so everyone is really very concerned. We hope the rain ceases soon even though the weather reporters predict it will last through Wednesday.

On Saturday my cousin David's family threw him a surprise birthday party. He was really surprised and we all had a really great time. We cousins all grew up together and it's not often we all get together, so it was so special to be able to see each other again.

Here's a picture of Cousin David and his family. David is the one with the ball cap on. His brother Steve is to the left of David, his sister Elpedia is beside him in yellow. His mom, Casi (my mom's sister) is in the long blue trench coat, then his other sister Mary Helen. Behind Mary Helen his brother Art (the oldest) and then the baby of the family, Hector. Isn't it wonderful that all his brothers and sisters were there to help him celebrate? I love you all so much!

The next day was my own dear mom's birthday. We had already planned to make Biscochos that day. Biscochos are a small, crispy cookie that we all grew up with. Our Tia Nico, my mom's sister would spend days and days before all holiday's making these cookies. She would then store them in empty coffee cans and no one left with empty hands, each family took home a coffee can filled with these delicious cookies. These probably aren't as wonderful as hers or maybe the memories of childhood can never match the present, but these are biscochos.

That's 20 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar and 6 cups of shortening and 6 eggs plus lots of other spices and cooking ingredients. I'll share the recipe with everyone in a separate post tomorrow.

Since it was my mom's birthday we had a full house to help with the making of the Biscochos, so I'd like to share some pictures.

My job was to cream the shortening and the sugar. Last year my poor sister Lisa and I did it by hand. I forgot I had this beautiful pink Kitchen-Aid Mixer in the closet because my generous daughter April had given it to me for Mothers Day and I had never unpacked it! This mixer is the greatest! I just stood there watching everyone else work while the mixer did it all for me.

The harder job went to my sister Lisa and her youngest son Isaac (my Godson). Their job was to sift the dry ingredients and then blend the dry and wet ingredients by hand.

Here they are sifting. Isaac refused to wear an Apron! I think next year I'm going to get him a Bobby Flay manly apron!

Here Lisa and Isaac are blending dry and wet ingredients. My brother Fred is in the background, he was admiring my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

Here Isaac is doing what we in spanish call "Amasando" (in English kneading). With 20 pounds of flour this is very labor intensive!

Isaac did a really good job, and before you knew it, it was time to start rolling out the dough! Everyone got a chance to come and roll out some dough and cut some cookies with a giant pizza cutter. They then placed them on the cookie sheets and my sister Lisa was in charge of baking them in the oven until they were that perfect golden brown. (A few batches were that perfect golden burnt color, but several members of our family love the burned ones, go figure!)

First up...Isaac under the watchful eyes of his Nana (grandmother).

 Then he and his mom made some together. See the little rolling pin? I scoffed at it when I saw it because it was such a tiny little one while the other one in the picture is mine. It turned out that everyone preferred the little one which belongs to my sister Lisa. Kudo's to you Sis!

 I didn't want to be left out, so of course I had to come and get in on the act. Don't we look like real cooks with Aprons and everything? Mine was a gift from my sister-in-law Connie and I love it! The one my sister is wearing was sewn by my mom, many, many years ago. She gave one to each of us girls for Christmas one year. The boys I believe received hand-made bathrobes that year.

Here I am again...I'm a Biscocho making machine!

 And since it's my blog...I'll post just one more picture of me :-D  As you can tell, I was pretty happy. This was a great day!

And here's my brother Fred again, popping in to check on how things are progressing. Don't worry Fred, the first batch will be ready soon!

Next up to make a batch of biscochos? Looks like it's my other brother Jaime and his daughters. The baby, Clarissa and the oldest Sarena.

Here's Jaime showing Clarissa and Lisa his technique. Jaime and his kids actually cook together quite a bit. Last year he and Clarissa made homemade scented soaps for everyone as Christmas presents. They were heavenly!

My sister Lisa and her nieces Clarissa and Sarena. I think Sarena's already sampling the first batch...she looks happy so they must be good!

Next up...my baby girl April had to make her batch too. Now April, that's a rolling pin...not a baton!

Ok, now she's down to business! Now she's got the hang of that rolling pin. She's a natural!

Biscocho making wasn't the only thing going on. We had lots of other activities happening. People would just float from one to the other.

We had some game playing going on in the living room, on the coffee table, under the Christmas Tree. That precious puppy Chorizo loved all the attention she was getting from everyone! I don't know who was winning this game of Sorry but here's Clarissa, April, my sister-in-law Connie (the gifter of the apron mentioned earlier) and my nephew, Clarissa's brother Gabriel.

The birthday girl, my mom also had some gifts to open! Here she is with my brother Jaime and Clarissa.

So what did you get mom? Let us see. Ohhhhh, how pretty, an Angel! Good job in picking this one out Jaime, Connie, Sarena, Gabriel and Clarissa!

There was also some visiting with Cousin David who had to come by to wish his Tia Tome (his Aunt Tome, my mom) Happy Birthday! Thanks for coming David! (His mom, pictured in the first picture on this post in the blue trench coat is my mom's sister.)

We also did a lot of picture taking so we could have the memory of this day forever! Here's my mom and her son's; my very handsome brothers, Fred and Jaime. Love you Bros!

My mom and her beautiful daughters :-D   My sister Lisa.and me!

My mom with her daughters and her sons.

My mom with some of her grandchildren. Missing were my brother Fred's children who came over later and my son who was AWOL for the day and my sister's son Sean who came over later and will be in a picture a little later in the post. Pictured from left to right, Gabriel, Isaac, April, Sarena, Clarissa and their Nana!

They insisted on taking a silly picture as well. . .they are kids after all :-D

My sister Lisa had purchased some miniature chocolate bottles filled with various liqueurs. I had one with Orange flavored Russian Vodka. Oh my gosh these are so good, but so rich you can only eat/drink one so no danger of getting drunk on these! If you compare the bottle to the little crystal twinkle light you can see how really miniature they are.

Here's Jaime and April both enjoying a chocolate liqueur. Don't worry, even though he's my baby brother and she's my baby girl, they're both way over 21!

My sister's son Sean was working but came by during his lunch hour to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday.

We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to my mom and taking a group picture with her. We had to do this one is two shots. I'm in this one sitting in the chair.

And my sister Lisa is in this one sitting in the chair. I really need a tripod! Santa...if you're listening?

I can't imagine Christmas Day topping this day. What? Oh yeah, well yeah...true, there will be presents. But c'mon...this was the bestest day ever! Thank you all for making it so special!

Thank you Ale, Bebe, Little Fred and Adrianna for coming by later and spending time with Nana and for bringing that precious little Melissa to give her Nana a birthday hug before the day was over. I love you all so much!