Holidays through the years

Christmas is a celebration of the solstice, a reminder of how the year moves and how we move through it. It's got deep pagan roots and so do I!

Christmas celebrations in my childhood were filled with clothes my mom and grandmothers made, enough presents for my parents to be in debt for the year. . . and peppermint. That peppermint stick I'm pulling out of my stocking in the center shot started a life-long love affair with the stuff.

From left to right: 1) Me in Christmas dress my maternal grandmother had stitched for me. 2) Little me digging into the stocking and finding my new favorite thing - peppermint. 3) 7 year old me holding my sister on a balmy, Texas-y Christmas day.

Like the vast majority of us, I inherited my family's values and way of celebrating. But over the years the emphasis on presents and shopping myself into a stressed indebted servitude to credit card companies has given way to a love of the lights, evergreen boughs, and Texas Swing Christmas music. . . and the peppermint, of course.

Top row, left to right: 1) Tree made of lights on Kandy Lane in South Austin. 2) Light display on Kandy Lane - one of our favorite drive-throughs. 3) Lights at Mozart's on the lake. The lights at Mozart's are fabulous and are lit through New Years. If you're in the area, go see them and have a warm beverage!

Bottom row, left to right: 1) DeLora napping after a Christmas meal. 2) Detail of our annual hearth decorations. 3) Holly berries in our neighborhood.

2013 was the year Merry Margaret showed up at our back door. We thought someone had gone for a holiday vacation and left her outside, bu no. A woman who lost her home was couch surfing with friends, but had to move along. She left Merry Margaret behind.

The first night Merry Margaret was on our porch we made a fleece teepee to keep her out of the wind and set out bowls of food and water. The next morning the water was frozen. Yikes! The second night of this uncharacteristic end-of-year cold snap, it got even colder (14°F). We couldn't leave her out in that, so we brought her in "just for tonight."

As it turns out, it's still "tonight." That's how she got the name Merry - she was our Merry Christmas present. The Margaret part just seemed to go with it. So now it sounds like we live with an Irish Catholic nun.

Some of our favorite Austin holiday traditions were going to see the lights at Mozart's, opening up the Awesome Jar,* and going to see the Alamo Drafthouse Quote-Along of Elf.

* What's an Awesome Jar? When something cool happens through the year we write a note about it and tuck it a jar we have dedicated for this. At the end of the year, we open it, read it, and have a renewed sense of gratitude for the year and what happened throughout.

We found an inexpensive artificial tree and this reindeer light form at a local Goodwill. I had to re-hab all of the above, but they made great yard decor when we were done. Incidentally, it was so warm the first year I put these up that I did the work in shorts and a t-shirt while DeLora held an umbrella over my head to keep me out of the drizzle so I didn't have a shocking experience (pun intended) as I wired it all up.

In 2016 we visited Guanajuato, Mexico over the winter holidays and rang in 2017 there. This became the launch point for our move to Mexico, the land where Christmas is celebrated from just after Día de Muertos through at least January 6th, Three Kings Day. This is also the land where poinsettias are called flor de nochebuena, grow everywhere all year long, and can get up to 2 meters tall.

When we moved to San Miguel de Allende in early 2018 our traditions changed. We saw new decorations, new ways of celebrating, and new ways of being. Fewer lights, more fireworks, lots of piñatas, less emphasis on presents and more focus on loved ones.

Piñatas at Christmas in Mexico are a deeply religious tradition. The ones pictured above are made of punched tin and are designed for light and ambiance. The type you break open with a stick are made of papier-mache, are shaped like a seven pointed star, and represent the seven deadly sins. Breaking them open is the act of overcoming your base nature to get to the sweetness hidden inside your own soul.

Markets are filled with tons of decorations. Evergreen boughs, Flores de Nochebuena (you know them as poinsettias), tinsel, piñatas, lights, and hand-painted backgrounds for Christmas nativity scenes.

Rolled and ready-to-purchase nativity backdrops on the left, opened out for your viewing pleasure on the right.

Christmas bouquet at Santuario Hogar Guadalupano Mexiquito

May your holiday season, however you celebrate it and whatever you believe, be full of light, laughter, love, and new beginnings.