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Have to get all these traditions out of the way
Merry Christmas!
You all got the wishing first, as my family sleeps much later than I do (the curse of a morning person), so I'm waiting here in the living room for someone else to get up. I'm still having a hard time believing that it's Christmas morning. Between working all but two days of the first three weeks of December, my father deciding that this was the year to throw out all tradition, and rain on Christmas Eve which preempted the luminarias I'm not sure what to do with myself.
So, I think I will engage I my personal tradition about complaining about luminarias. For the uninitiated luminarias are the white paper lunch bags that you put sand and a candle in and then set out all along the road. I believe that they are originally a Latin American tradition to lead the Christ child to Bethlehem. In my experience with the tradition it is neighborhood planning boards trying to make the neighborhood look pretty on Christmas Eve (which I have to admit it does). For most people making and setting our the luminarias is not that hard. They have ten or so bags that can be filled in 20 min (including the step where you roll down the top of bag one inch which my family always ignores), put in a wagon to distribute, and then lit with little problem. My families long standing issue with the luminarias comes from the fact that my parents live on a corner property. The property make a vague triangle with the street along to of the legs. That means that we are assigned 64 luminarias to put out every year. We spend an hour or so in the (cold) garages making them in assembly line fashion: two people to fill and one to put in candles and transfer the finished product to the trunk of a car. Then to put them out someone (usually me) gets to drive very slowly down the road while the two others pace out the 10 ft between each bag. Then right before church we all get to go out with kitchen lighters and light the candles (which never really want to be lighted). Generally, it takes forever and involves much grumbling. Also a lot of my father reminding us how he used to do it all on his own. ('cause you know we were going to help before we could walk). Of course, all the grumbling melts away when we get back from church and all the streets in the area are lined with little lights in white paper bags. It really is very pretty.
You all got the wishing first, as my family sleeps much later than I do (the curse of a morning person), so I'm waiting here in the living room for someone else to get up. I'm still having a hard time believing that it's Christmas morning. Between working all but two days of the first three weeks of December, my father deciding that this was the year to throw out all tradition, and rain on Christmas Eve which preempted the luminarias I'm not sure what to do with myself.
So, I think I will engage I my personal tradition about complaining about luminarias. For the uninitiated luminarias are the white paper lunch bags that you put sand and a candle in and then set out all along the road. I believe that they are originally a Latin American tradition to lead the Christ child to Bethlehem. In my experience with the tradition it is neighborhood planning boards trying to make the neighborhood look pretty on Christmas Eve (which I have to admit it does). For most people making and setting our the luminarias is not that hard. They have ten or so bags that can be filled in 20 min (including the step where you roll down the top of bag one inch which my family always ignores), put in a wagon to distribute, and then lit with little problem. My families long standing issue with the luminarias comes from the fact that my parents live on a corner property. The property make a vague triangle with the street along to of the legs. That means that we are assigned 64 luminarias to put out every year. We spend an hour or so in the (cold) garages making them in assembly line fashion: two people to fill and one to put in candles and transfer the finished product to the trunk of a car. Then to put them out someone (usually me) gets to drive very slowly down the road while the two others pace out the 10 ft between each bag. Then right before church we all get to go out with kitchen lighters and light the candles (which never really want to be lighted). Generally, it takes forever and involves much grumbling. Also a lot of my father reminding us how he used to do it all on his own. ('cause you know we were going to help before we could walk). Of course, all the grumbling melts away when we get back from church and all the streets in the area are lined with little lights in white paper bags. It really is very pretty.