We learned today that Meleena has been accepted to the Med Pathway program wherein she will be taking special classes designed to begin educating her in the world of Medicine as part of her long term goal of becoming a Nurse.
Nevermind, though, as while I was out on those adventures the team was hard at work preparing the midnight feast of Tamales. The great debate, as it is every year, was whether the Pork or Chicken Mole was the best.
The Xmas Eve festivities themselves were the usual whirlwind with people turning up from around 9pm onwards and the house gradually filling up until around 11:30 when the White Elephant gift exchange took place. The gifts were good this year - a box of fishing bait, a luminescent unicorn picture, a mug depicting something unmentionable on a family-oriented blog, and a chest wig, to name just a few.
The usual midnight chaos of 'Merry Xmas' cheers and frantic gift opening then ensued before everyone settled down to examine their gifts, consume Tamales, a glass or two of Vodka and Orange/Beer/Soft Drinks/Etc. and a game a of Catchphrase before even the kids began to get tired and headed home at around 2:30am. 
We went out for breakfast with Hanako and Tsugumi on Saturday at Country Waffles in Selma and were delighted to encounter the one and only Santa Claus there. He graciously agreed to take some time out from preparing for his big night next week to pose for this picture with them.
Since then I have been delighted to learn that this is actually the first ever photo that Hanako and Tsugumi have had taken with Santa.
So there. Let it be known far and wide that your dreams can come true when you visit Craig and Michelle.
As for me, I remember the magical childhood visits to see Santa (or, rather, Father Christmas as we used to say where I come from) at Debenhams in Oxford where he would setup shop in the run-up to Christmas. Debenhams is also the store where I bought a pair of super-tight Wrangler cords that I think only fit me for about five minutes before I grew out of them, but which helped me maintain my soprano singing voice for the Church choir for a few extra months.
As many of you know (and experienced), on the 10th day of Michelle's 40th birthday celebrations we hosted a big party for her at our house. Magic Mike was on-hand to perform close-up magic, the fridge was stocked with domestic and international beers, mini quiches and shredded beef sliders and all manner of other goodies were available and I was finally able to unveil the special surprise movie that many, many people around the globe had contributed to over the past couple of months.
That wasn't all, however. The final surprise of the evening - and the moment that I could finally relax, knowing that all the secret planning and conniving of the past couple of months had come to a successful end - was the unveiling of the oil painting of Michelle that Will Cotterill (Nick's brother) had been working on back in Oxford, England. Big thanks to Will not only for doing a fabulous job on the art itself, but for locating the services of the packing company who were able to crate it up in such a way that we could ship it overnight from the UK to our house without upsetting the still-drying oil paint. It will be taking pride of place in our living room from this coming weekend and will be lovingly varnished and framed just as soon as it's ready.
On this day 40 years ago, the one and only Michelle Eleanor Ulloa was born.
