Via NewMexiKen comes Karen’s list of the “Top ten things I miss about Christmas in New Mexico:”
8) Christmas Eve midnight Mass in Spanish with the overpowering scent of frankincense filling up the overly warm church. Pure torture for a small child, but oh how I’d belt out the carols… And when we came home we could pick one present and open it. Gah! The torture of picking just one!
All I can say is that this list applies for my family almost to a tee — the only major differences being location-based (we never went to Old Town for shopping, since we were in Silver City and all). Also, my mom, sister and I would always go looking for a Christmas tree. We’d head to the Gila National Forest near Pinos Altos or around Bear Mountain.
And we’d spend hours searching and searching. And Aislinn and I would fight, eventually split up, and head off in search of the perfect tree. And, finally, we’d settle on a tree (sometimes after tears had been shed).
Now, cutting it down and getting back to the car was an entirely different story: one year, I used the saw on my Leatherman tool.
I’ll actually be home for Christmas this year. More specifically, I’ll arrive on Christmas, stopping to say hello to my sister at the airport in El Paso as she hops on a plane to come back to D.C. My poor dad, who gets to do all the driving.
Laura
Wishing you and your family a blessed Christmas .
Hope your trip back to home to New Mexico is a great one !
Karen Fayeth
Yeah, only once did my family cut our own tree. It caused such an extended argument between my folks, we didn’t do that again. We were reduced to having my mom and I go pick the tree and everyone else just had to deal with it.
I always wished my fam damily could get it together to do tree cutting. Oh well, they are what they are and I love them.
Safe travels for the holidays!
Aislinn
The reason we fought over the tree is because you always picked the UGLIEST trees, whereas I picked the prettiest.
Remember that one tree we got that kept falling over once we got it home and in the stand? We eventually had to secure it with fishing line that we stapled to the wall. That was definitely one that you picked out.