Holidays of Lights Are Here!
November 22, 2009Soon Alicia and I will be celebrating our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years here in this chillier-than-we-thought-it’d-be southwestern desert city high in the mountains in the Land of Enchantment. We’re hoping that our holiday experience is just as enchanting.
With a cornucopia of ho-ho-ho holiday activities to look forward to, we’re fairly bursting at the seams with joy and fa-la-la-la-la.
On the heels of the popular New Mexico State Fair and the colorful Balloon Fiesta is the Lighting of the Luminarias http://www.itsatrip.org/albuquerque/culture-heritage/hispanic/luminarias.aspx in Old Town Albuquerque; it’s one of a series of southwestern seasonal stocking stuffers offered on a chock-full calendar of events that resonate with historical significance in this Place of a Thousand Years.
In some ways, Alicia and I feel as if we’ve continued our traveling/teaching abroad, even though we’re back in the United States. Rich in Mexican and Native American history, Albuquerque resonates with Spanish and local tribal influences that make one feel as if he/she is living in a country outside of the U.S.
Though one can always get wrapped up in the commercialization of Christmas, we plan on a relaxed holiday season, picking and choosing to attend various local events, never traveling far from home.
Thankfully both of us will have some time off from our busy schedules. Since August, Alicia’s been hard at work, making the grade as a fulltime student at University of New Mexico. I’ve been back working as a substitute school teacher, working Mondays through Fridays, then on Saturdays shifting gears and working with developmentally disabled adults. It hasn’t left a lot of room for rest and relaxation.
So, the holidays will give us some needed time off (a few days at Thanksgiving and two weeks or more at Christmas) from our collective studies, contributions to community, and money-making activities. Though we’ll be out and about celebrating, we’ll also be at home eating (from a veritable feast of recipes), drinking (hot chocolate and stronger concoctions), and making merry (hosting family and friends, admiring our tree, and counting our blessings, however small).
This website, http://www.itsatrip.org/albuquerque/default.aspx is a good place to start, whether you’re living in Albuquerque, or just visiting for the holidays. It’s a great place to begin your holiday planning.
On out website, www.southwestales.com, over the next two months and into the New Year, we will present you with a series of stories selected specifically for the season.
We plan on taking you on a trip to candy land, right here in Albuquerque, with a sweet tooth of a story about Buffett’s Candies http://www.buffettscandies.com/about.php, the place with the big candy cane, a landmark store in this part of the southwest since 1956. Also, in honor of Thanksgiving, there’ll be a short story, titled “Thanksgiving Hamburger”, by Northwest writer, Bill McLaughlin. We’re even burning the midnight oil, working as hard as Santa’s elves on other features, including our recent delightful discovery of a Venezuelan restaurant called Café Choroni.
Our mission is simple. We look forward to adding a little spice to your holiday cheer with our constantly renewable resource that’s become our website, the gift that keeps giving all year long. Tis the season to bring you, the reader, ornamental odes to southwestern people, places, and more. We hope to carry on this tradition throughout the holiday and New Year as we ourselves unwrap all the gifts that Albuquerque has to offer and re-gift them to you.
Happy Holidays to all of you, our family, friends, and those tourists new to our website. We wish you and yours the very best of the season and year ahead. You’re in our thoughts and prayers always, wherever in the world our whimsy takes us.
Written by Joseph Haviland
Edited by Alicia Frank Haviland
Copyright 2009
Posted by Cowboy Joe
