Family Christmas in Santiago and "Baby's First Christmas"
		Our "family" here in Chile is Mónica's, so of course, and as usual, we celebrated Christmas Eve together at her apartment. Our cameras were focused mostly on the new grandchild, Catalina, who was born on July 27, 2004. There were 10 of us there: Mónica and her husband Gustavo; son Christian and his wife Karen and baby Catalina; son Alejandro and his wife La Flaca and his mother-in-law Patricia; daughter Coté; and the Gringo members of the family, Artie and Margy.
Christian, Mónica, Coté, and Alejandro
To avoid confusion for some of you who haven't met many or any of the players in our lives, we must explain that Mónica's Christian and his family are now living in Mexico. They travel with passports from 3 different countries, since Christian is Chilean, Karen is Scottish, and the baby is Mexican! This Christian is not to be confused with "our Cristián" (note the different spelling) who is Chilean and is now studying in Seville, Spain.

Before our dinner, we enjoyed watching and playing with the best present under the tree.

Mónica always does a wonderful job with her Christmas decorations, and this year was no exception. In Catalina's honor, the tree had lots of toys as well as lights, ribbons and traditional ornaments. Flaca helps Catalina to get a closer (but not too close) look at the tree.

		Playing with the baby continued as we enjoyed the fine dinner that Mónica had prepared.

And the proud parents looked on.
There is always some silliness when Christian comes to visit, and this year was no exception! We knew it was Christmas day when after midnight we heard Santa's bell and saw more presents being delivered.

It was a wonderful night for all of us, being together to share special moments and love, especially being there for baby's first Christmas.