Every soulful and traditional Mexican knows what having tamales around, during this time of year, really means.
This year, it meant a lot more to us. It meant getting Christmas going. Literally.
With only four days until Christmas Day, just yesterday we bought the Christmas tree. Today we put it up and decorated it. And I started my one-day-squeeze -Christmas shopping- fiasco. It wasn’t a complete failure.
For some reason Christmas didn’t hit the heart until my mother decided to wake up early Sunday morning with the sheer idea to make tamales. During this time, we sang Feliz Navidad and Silent Night (en espanol, of course), it was then that we realized–we didn’t have the “spirit” in us.
By the time we were finished and my thumb was twisted any kind of way from spreading the dough on the shell, I was already thinking: tree, presents for the fam-bam, my holiday outfit, and the birth of baby Jesus.
It’s funny how making tamales and bonding with my madre prompt all of us to get into to the Christmas mood. Today, we lit up the house, we decorated the tree (purple because it’s my favorite), put presents underneath, and even got glitter all over our faces. It was wondrous. It even got me thinking, why didn’t we do this sooner.
However, there is no time like the present (no pun indented).
