A holiday remembrance

   I started writing Christmas stories when I was in Texas, working at the Brady Standard-Herald. This one  centers around a wonderful Christmas memory involving Mom.
Whether you observe Christmas or another winter festival tradition, it is my hope you are surrounded by loved ones and you are safe, happy, warm.
Besos y abrazos.

*****

Christmas Eve, 2013

   Christmas is fast upon us. Heck, in New Zealand, it is well underway. So how do you feel about Christmas? Are you bubbling over with barely-contained joy or are you tempted, in your unnamed fear and dread, to try to outrun it? Perhaps most folks find themselves somewhere between the two extremes, depending upon what circumstances they face on any given day or even how they slept the night before.

   I am partial to the sounds of the season. Music stirs my soul. Some days the stirring is like trailing my fingers through a gentle stream. Other days I feel like I've been through a blender on high speed. No wonder James Bond wants his martini "shaken, not stirred." Regarding Christmas music, I have yet to hear a rendition of  "Carol of the Bells" that is not thoroughly enjoyable, while one of my sisters likes any and all versions of "Little Drummer Boy." There is a melancholy softness to be found in "What Child is This?" and "Coventry Carol." I feel sultry and sexy when I hear "Santa Baby" and I can hardly sit still when "Jingle Bell Rock" is playing. Undoubtedly there are incurable curmudgeons who despise all holiday music, which is their prerogative. So what does music do for you?

   What with the deplorable state of the economy, health care, morals, you name it, it is easy to be very cynical, despite the "magic" of the holiday season. The degree of cynicism is a choice we make when we get up every morning. It may start with the decision whether or not to drag oneself out of bed.

   Sometimes there is no choice: you have a job, therefore you must get up. Your job might be parent, student, rocket scientist or buffer but, whatever it may be, YOU have to do it.

   Besides my paid position, I feel it is part of my job to go out into the world on a daily basis and look for something to write about, laugh about or even sing about. And then share that with others. I enjoy what I do, both vocation and avocation. It is my nature to be a joy seeker but I also consider myself a cynic/realist, having once told a friend that cynicism ran so deeply in my family that we had developed a mutant chromosome and it had become a genetic trait.

   If you find yourself unable to capture that elusive holiday spirit with music, perhaps you can entice it with food and drink. Seasonal foods and beverages abound as do the traditions that surround them. One of my dearly departed friends used to host an annual homemade eggnog bash that heavily emphasized the "nog" portion of the concoction. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like a three-story house filled with two or three dozen well-lubricated voices belting out Christmas music and show tunes to invite Christmas "presence."

   Tamales are popular any time of year and making them features prominently in many family holiday traditions. The first year my [late] sister Teri came to Texas, we made bean and cheese tamales, since Teri was vegetarian. By the second year we decided that was too much trouble and we settled for bean "borrachos" and masa sticks.
   Christmas 2007 found four of us sisters gathered together. The youngest sister had come to Brady from San Diego, California, one was visiting from Las Vegas and two of us resided there. Our parents came down from Tecumseh, Michigan.

   We girls were up to our elbows in masa, meat and corn husks, preserving a tradition. It was also something of a rite of passage as I realized that I am the viejita-elect. As the eldest of my generation, the torch has been passed to me. Will the flame continue to burn or will it sputter and die? Only time will tell. I think it may flicker but I will probably break down and buy some corn husks and at least make a few dozen masa sticks, from time to time.

    Christmas Eve church services are another wonderful tradition. I grew up in a home strongly influenced by church. It was with immeasurable joy that I joined my parents and the youngest of my siblings at the Brady Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve 2007 and took Holy Communion with them. We wept unashamedly and it was good for the soul.

   Whatever this season holds for you, I pray you will be blessed with the grace to persevere. Big cry-baby that I am, I get all choked up by the simple phrase, "God bless us, every one." May you indeed be blessed and might we all hear "tidings of comfort and joy."