Mexican Christmas!

So Randy and I haven't been very good about blogging lately, but we're back!  I've recently started a new job (same company), but now I'm a supervisor.  As if that isn't exciting enough, I'm the supervisor for a team that is a new initiative at my company, so it's kind of like a start-up and very entrepreneurial.  It's super challenging and really fun, and I love it, but when I get home from work every day, I'm drained.  Randy has something similar going on at work - not a new position, but he's working on a new objective for his company too.  We're both getting confused about what day of the week it is because we've been working Saturdays, but have a random Friday off...  I'm not making excuses, I don't believe in excuses, but I thought I owed an explanation at least to myself.

So anyway, let's jump into Christmas!  It came quick this year, didn't it?  With Thanksgiving so late and Hanukkah so early, it really threw us for a loop!  But this is the Christmas we have been waiting on for a while...  Mexican Christmas!  And we're hosting!  And I can't stop exclaiming!

You might remember Southern BBQ Christmas last year at my brother's house, and Cajun Christmas in 2011 at Randy's brother's.  We have a tradition of hosting a themed Christmas every year based on a chosen culture.  Since Randy's family is jewish, and mine is catholic, we decided to start creating our own traditions together rather than make Randy's family fit into our traditions.  And I was totally fine with giving up the ham on Christmas day.  Sorry, Mom.

So for Mexican Christmas, which later became Merry-achi Christmas, we started with this.  I found the star at Target.  It was pretty rustic looking, and it was $5.  Sold.

Instead of our traditional red tree skirt with snowmen, I wrapped our Penn State blanket around the tree Linus-style, which the cats loved.  If the cats puke on it, it washes very easily, unlike our tree skirt.  I wanted to stick to the Mexican theme as much possible, so anything overly American I left in the christmas boxes.  That means no red suited Santas, no snowflakes (does it snow in Mexico?), and no snowmen.

So Randy, Keller and Rocky took a break while I sorted through our ornaments and pulled out all the colorful ones, all the folk artsy ones, and the ones that could look sorta Mexican if you squinted at them sideways.

Who do you think he's talking to?  I can't remember, but if I had to bet money, I'd say his mom.

So then our tree looked like this:

Feliz Navidad, right?  Wrong.

Even with Camille posing for the camera, the tree just wasn't complete.  But she is cute, isn't she?  I ordered some mini maracas and piñatas from Oriental Trading Company, and DIYed some cute felt bird ornaments.  More to follow on those.

In the meantime, I got the nativity set up, or as I like to call it, La Navidad.

Aaaaaaand just because, here is a picture of Keller when he cuddles with Randy.

 He's such a sweet little monkey.

Anyone else celebrating a non-traditional Christmas this year?  Have any cute kitties that like to snuggle by the tree?  Awwww c'mon, who can't resist these little toes!