It is hard to believe that Christmas is three weeks away, seriously. John and I were out harvesting another load of guyavas last weekend to make a pot of jam, we have yet to get bundled up in anything more than a light jacket and I have not seen nor heard one Christmas advertisement or song.
This is starting to change today as we prepare for school's annual Christmas fair tomorrow. I write this as our sugar cookie dough chills in the 'refri' and I think about not being in the family grab bag this year. Sad. It will be different this year, but at least I am relieved about not running to stores, and am looking forward to making gifts and having a more 'hands-on' Christmas. Speaking of hands-on, this afternoon I joined a group of parents to make tamales in the school kitchen. Tamale making is labor intensive and they are usually made for special occasions, especially around Christmas and New Years. My crew helped soften the banana leaves by scanning them over a high flame while another crew cleaned the leaves and another prepared the masa in a bathtub sized pot. Several parents brought in the prepared green beans, potatoes, peppers, carrots and cilantro for stuffing the tamales. Syria, the chief chef, gave us gringos a lesson on proper building and wrapping a tamale while other parents were now busy tying them into twin packs. The garlic hit the frying pan at 1PM and about 200 tamales were boiling at 5PM.
The boys were busy jamming on the school drum set and running in the field with some new girlfriends six years their senior. Thank you girls! Before heading home, we stopped into my classroom to feed the two new pet hamsters, mix the tub of earthworms, provide water to the spider and wood lice.
It is almost time to turn on the oven, find a suitable glass jar for rolling out the dough and a cup for cutting circles cookies. Another good thing about living here - reduced options lead to less mind clutter. Example, we don't have to think about oven temperature because there are only two choices - room temperature or hot. We don't have to dig out our candy cane and tree and snowman cutters, just use a glass or get a knife and make our own shapes. No parchment paper, no cookie rack, no sprinkles and one color for frosting - it all works fine and the cookies will be delicious. Signed M.
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