I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, full of loved ones and yummy food. The Santos clan gathered at the home of my Auntie Gloria and Uncle Andy in Hercules, CA. It was a good crowd of about 30-some folks, each of them bringing boatloads of food and drink to the affair. That's lasagna, beef with broccoli, potato au gratin, shrimp, corn pudding, pancit palabok noodles, fried dili fish, salsa and salmon on the table. Not pictured is the roast beef, ham, sotanhon soup, and chicken curry.
Did I mention dessert? My cousin Rafael of course always does an amazing job making desserts. This year he made these delicious red velvet cake lollipops that he placed on a little Christmas tree. Almost too good to eat… but of course I ate about four of them.
We also had several cheesecakes, various cookies, rice crispy treats, pie, and desserts that I've already forgotten.
Besides eating, we had of course lots of gift giving. Each of the kids got their own stockings that everyone filled with small presents like crayons, candy, and small dolls and action figures. Here's my mom surrounded by some of the youngsters thanking her for giving them the gift that keeps on giving: CASH.
The adults did our now infamous gift exchange, which this year was around the theme of "Buying Local." There was some complaining about how hard this was, but there were several creative and fun presents on the pile, including chocolates, olive oil, bath salts and soaps, a salon gift certificate, a local restaurant gift certificate, and a wooden necklace in Philippine flag colors (which I got.)
Here's one of our guests Ruby trying hard to decide which gift to pick.
I really liked the wooden necklace I got, which will look swell displayed in my home somewhere.
Here's a few more pics from our celebration.
My sis, mom and me.
The cousins (minus Rosanne.)
My sister and I in tacky Christmas sweaters.
Good times with the fam!