Nochebuena. Cubans. Photo Booth. (Pachanga!)

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My home, as I've told you before, is freakishly small cottage-like.

Accomodating my big, fat, Cuban family for Nochebuena takes quite a bit of planning and hard work and a little bit of creativity. Actually, a LOT of creativity.

My family is full of extroverted, noisy people. (Hello? Cubans!) They are easy conversationalists and will most always cooperate with whatever creative suggestions get thrown their way. (This quality is what makes our yearly Christmas videos so compelling.)

But to be honest, hosting a big party like this in our freakishly small cottage-like home requires that we also do some "crowd control." (AKA: have some activities planned.)

This year, we had a Photo Booth. (I know. Genius, right?) I'd gotten the idea from a few blog events I've attended this year. The Photo Booths were always a hit.

Me to my (very creative) kids: "We need to do a Photo Booth for Nochebuena."

Lucy: "Let's ask Mr. G (our favorite professional photographer and awesome neighbor) for help."

Our Awesome Professional Photographer Neighbor, Raphael, let us borrow a backdrop and a remote flash and lights and the whole set-up for The Great Nochebuena Photo Booth of 2010.

We moved all the furniture out of the way in Jonathan's room and voila! Instant Photo Booth!

I wanted to make sure that everyone had their photos taken with my mom, Luza.

Me & l

And that each family would be well represented.

Macs

I insisted that the couples jump in.

M&t

Me & e

"Yes, of course you can bring the dog."

K&j

I suggested generational pictures.

Garcia girls

And Lucy had the great eye for the crazy kid pics. (Do not miss Ben's Clip-on Tie of Awesomeness.)

Ben

We made sure to get the parents with each individual child. (This is probably because of some deep, psychological wounding I received because I was the youngest and there are no pictures of just me with my parents, but that's really a conversation I'll have to save for my therapist.)

Garcias

And of course, there were the siblings.

A&l

And my men. (Missed you, Adam!)

E&j

The cousins got a little crazy.

Cousins

And of course, we had to take the Classic Sister Picture of 2010. (Suitable for framing, no?)

Sisters

Some of the photos were out of focus and a little goofy.....which made them absolutely Picture Perfect.

The fam

Yes, that's me. Right up front. With the smug self-satisfied grin on my face. (And gift wrapping ribbon in my hair, but that's not important right now.) =D