View From Casita Colibrí

For the first time since I began nesting in my cozy little rooftop casita, I’m not heading north for Christmas.  I admit to having decidedly mixed feelings; my family and most of my closest friends are up in El Norte and I’m already missing them and the traditions we have created.  However, this year I get to share the holidays with new friends, create new traditions, and experience festivities heretofore unimagined — Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radishes)?  I can’t wait!

In the meantime, to bring a little of the familiar into the mix, I bought a Christmas tree.  Not a real one (sad face) and not one of those seen below that my local supermarket has had for sale for several weeks.  Mine is decidedly smaller, measuring exactly two feet, and…

too small to hang my favorite Mexican ornaments on its un-scented, wiry but green(!) boughs.  These colorful and wonderfully bouncy decorations will be purchased and a place for them in and around Casita Colibrí will be found.

Trimming my tree will present some challenges.  No cartons of ornaments, lovingly collected and stored by four generations of the family, to bring down from the attic.  And, as I’ve said, the tree is tiny.  I’m thinking… digging into my earring collection might be a good place to start.

However, these earrings will have to wait to adorn the tree until after I wear them tomorrow.  December 8 is the celebration of the Virgen de Juquila — the first of three Vírgenes honored by Oaxaqueños in December.  There will be parades.  There will be fireworks.  There will be wildly clanging church bells.  And, there will be an abundance of magic this month, of this I have no doubt!