A Very Merry Marzoa Christmas
Our very first year with our twins and we couldn't be happier to celebrate Christmas! What a joyous time, in what has been a very difficult and morbid year for many. Although we cannot celebrate with our entire family, as we would like, its more important that everyone stays safe, and virus-free! It will be a low-key affair for us this time around, but next year will be a different story.
Our Traditions
As Cuban-Americans we both follow the customs instilled by our heritage and family. We predominantly celebrate December 24th, or as we like to call it, NOCHE BUENA! We usually gather at one of our family members homes, which changes every year, and we all contribute dishes and share in beautiful memories together. Our dishes of choice are usually: lechon (pork), arroz moro (rice and beans cooked together), yuca, plantains, some salad and we eat at least two plates full of food (not kidding!). After dinner, usually an hour or two later (once room has been made in our bellies) we share in wonderful deserts, such as flan de queso (cream cheese custard), turron (nougat confection), cheesecake or some assortment of such. Ten pounds later, its time to head home to rest for the next days festivities, Christmas with the Fam!
Decorating our Home
In our household, we leave the decorating to the pro, who goes by the name Daniel! He definitely has the stronger eye for design, and can make something out of literally NOTHING. We both dabble in some form of design, but when it comes to home decor, Daniel takes the cake. We purchased a 12 foot tree when we first moved into our home, 6 years ago. It is still the tree we currently use, although it has gone through some changes, minor pruning (base was too wide with fireplace), and many of the lights have now officially died. We fix this by adding our own lights, and have done so for the past couple years. It's been a difficult year, so we made it work, even though I think next year we will probably have a new tree to decorate. While Dennis was away at work, and sleeping at night, Daniel put up the tree, decorated it, along with a wreath and many other areas of our home, finishing with our twins nursery. He definitely does it with so much attention to detail and love, and it shows! It was not easy task finishing it all up, while caring for twins during the day, who are slowly requesting more and more of Daddy's time, but he managed, and he survived! This year, we decided to once again flock the tree, as we did last year, because we loved the winter-wonderland feel it provided and it cooled off the entry to our home, which is very warm and masculine. We finished it off by adding some memorable tree ornaments, which remind of us all our blessings and some bring back some incredible memories as well. Check out some of the photos below of our the finishing touches...
Santa came to Casa Marzoa
Because of the ongoing pandemic, we could not do things parents would normally do or partake in with their kids, such as taking photos with Santa at the mall or elsewhere. I think every parent dreams of the day they can do this with their babies, and it just wasn't something feasible for us, or safe. No photo is worth taking a risk for! So, we called upon Daniels cousin, Prima, a very high connected woman, to do her magic and attempt to get Santa over to us. She had his cell number saved and a simple text message or a couple hundred of them later, and Santa made it over to our rooftop, reindeer and all! It definitely pays to know the right people *wink*!
All photos in this blog by Kevin Martin Photography. Thank you, Kevin!
YouTube Video
Check out our video below as we discuss our family traditions, decorate our home for Christmas, and have a special surprise visitor at the end! As always, don't forget to LIKE, COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE, if you haven't already done so. This helps to keep our video moving along the algorithm and seen by many more viewers! Thank you for all the love! Merry Christmas from the Marzoa Family!
