Saldanas In San Jose: The Holidays

Now that the Christmas tree and decorations are put away, I have time to reflect on how incredible the holiday season was for me as a child. I remember driving around a looking at Christmas lights, putting Christmas songs on the stereo and decorating the tree. Each year we get an ornament that reflects something important to us at that point in our lives. I love taking out all of the ornaments and remembering sports I played, trips I took, and things that I loved. It takes us all day to tell stories and decorate the tree.

Every year, I looked forward to baking cookies with my mom. I have collected most of the family recipes over the years and am excited to continue the traditions of having cinnamon bread and egg casserole on Christmas morning, homemade Chex mix in the afternoon, and Auntie Mae's cookies with homemade pie after dinner.

With some of the guests at the Christmas eve Open House - 2006

I always loved our family's open house on Christmas eve, where friends and family dropped by to celebrate with us, having dinner, and then going to the late night candlelight service at church.

As soon as we got home, we would put out cookies, milk, and carrots (for the reindeer). I would carefully write a note to Santa and would be so excited the next morning to read what he wrote back to me.

Our Christmas boots in 1987

Christmas 2012 - Esteban is excited to teach a child to fly a kite with his new monkey kite from his boot

Each morning, we would empty our Christmas boots (made by my grandfather). Included in the stash was always a jigsaw puzzle that we would spend the day working on. After lunch, we always played card games or dominoes and laughed for hours.

In our family, gift wrapping was almost as important as what was inside. Not only were the packages beautiful, but each year one gift would often include a scavenger hunt or another similar way to make us laugh as we unwrapped.