The lechón smells delicious as it finishes roasting in the oven, the majority of the gifts are wrapped and underneath the Christmas tree and the playlist full of trullas navideñas and villancicos is ready for tonight’s Nochebuena celebration, which I’ll be hosting in my home this year. It’s going to be a long night… but one of my favorite ones of the year.

I doubt we’ll wait until midnight to have dinner — like we  used to when I was a child since we first went to Misa de Gallo — but we’ll be sitting down at the table fairly late. Past 10 p.m., I’m sure. If my dad was still alive, we’d be having turkey, like most Peruvians do for Christmas. But he’s gone and nobody makes turkey like he did, so we’ve switched our menu to reflect my husband’s Puerto Rican heritage. And, although I’m obviously partial, he makes a mean lechón.

Dinner will go on a forever and it’ll be loud, although not as much as other years, since not everyone in the family is in town. I know I’ll be stuffing myself with all the goodies on the table, but I can’t say the same for Vanessa, who half-way through dinner will start asking when we’ll be opening the gifts. The asking will go on incessantly, until we finally gather around the tree and start the gifting frenzy.

But first, at the stroke of midnight, I’ll hand Vanessa the little Baby Jesus figurine, and she’ll put it in our pesebre. After that, we’ll make a champagne toast and there’ll be a lot of hugging, kissing, laughing and all around happiness as we all wish each other ¡Feliz Navidad!

When I was little, my mom had my sister and I read the names on the gift tags out loud and then we all had to wait for the person to open their gift to see what they got. Now that Vanessa knows how to read, I’m passing on that responsibility to her. I think she’s going to be a great helper and she’ll love being in charge!

Before the night is over, we’ll have some Panetón and hot chocolate — a Peruvian tradition — which will be a perfect way to end the first Blanca Navidad Denver has seen in many, many years. (Yes! It’s snowing!)

On Christmas Day, the kids will wake up and open the gifts they got from Santa. I hope they sleep late, considering we’ll be going to bed super late tonight, but I know that’s wishful thinking. The rest of Christmas Day will be super lazy with the kids playing with their new toys and the rest of us eating leftovers — if there are any — in our PJs.

Here’s wishing you a very Merry Navidad!

{Photo by  lett -/\=}

Our amiga Dora has gotten herself and her friends into yet another adventure.  This time she volunteers to take Swiper off Santa’s naughty list by showing him the real spirit of la Navidad is giving, not taking away, or “swiping”, in his case.  To accomplish this, they take him to revisit the Swiper of Christmas past, present and future.  A classic holiday tale, told Dora-style.

The first clip I saw of this Nickelodeon primetime special, “Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure”, was the video of her singing “La Noche Buena.”  Head over to SpanglishBaby to watch it with your kids, if you haven’t already.  I automatically liked that it’s a catchy song to introduce young kids to the meaning of the word for Christmas Eve in Spanish:  Noche Buena.  Plus, it reflects the party atmosphere and even glamour (notice how they’re all dressed in party suits!) that Noche Buena traditionally is in Latin homes.

The CD, Dora´s Christmas, features two other exclusive music video along with the 16 classic holiday tunes performed by Dora-with a Latin twist.

I found it hilarious that Dora the Explorer’s version of Santa Claus not only speaks Spanish, actually Spanglish, but also has brown-tone skin.  I had no idea you could actually tan so much in the North Pole! It wasn’t necessary to portray a Latino-esque Santa, but it’s totally cute.  Hey, we could even call him Santa José!  OK, maybe not…

Unfortunately, there´s no Spanish-language track available on this Dora the Explorer movie, either.  But there´s enough Spanish and Latino traditions to make it part of your home-viewing repertoire.  There is, however, a companion hardcover book in Spanish called Dora y La Aventura de Navidad that would be perfect to have as well.

In any case, watch it for yourself and start a new family Christmas tradition leading up to la Noche Buena with “Dora´s Christmas Carol Adventure.”  This one-hour special premieres Sunday, Dec. 6th on Nickelodeon at 8pm (ET/PT). It will encore on Nickelodeon on Monday, Dec. 7, at 9 a.m. (ET/PT) and on Nick Jr. on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. (ET).  No worries if you don´t have cable, you can still watch it by downloading it from iTunes starting on Monday, Dec. 14th, or purchasing your very own copy here.  It also makes a wonderful gift!

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to Random.org, the winner is:  #14-Beth Shepherd.  Felicidades!

Of course we’ve hooked one up for you to win! One lucky winner will receive both “Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure” DVD and Dora´s Christmas CD.  How giving is that?!

For your chance to win all you have to do is leave a comment telling us which of the 16 tracks on this CD is your, or your child’s, favorite and why. Click on the widget below to sample the songs:

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, December 6th at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

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