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.