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Tag: christmas

Two Days till Christmas: Food & Drink

December 23, 2005 • • 3 Comments

One of my favorite holiday things is Celestial Seasonings seasonal Gingerbread Spice tea. I always forget about it and then Lo! there it appears like angels on high, stacked neatly on supermarket shelves every year around this time. I’m more a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, but I always expand my hot beverage consumption to include this.

The food that for me most signifies Christmas is Mexican food. This comes from my dad’s side of the family, which was based Arizona. The tradition was that when it was your birthday, you got to pick dinner. My aunt was born on Christmas Eve, and apparently she always wanted tacos. Therefore, tacos on Christmas Eve became a Brush family tradition carried on by my dad to his own family, and it’s one I aim to keep. So for me, the traditional food of Christmas is tacos, tamales, enchiladas, quesadillas, chile rellenos, and salsa, a menu I find more exciting than the standard turkey, potatoes and stuffing that I do enjoy (immensely) the next day.

Tamales were added to the menu after we moved to Austin (where Tex-Mex on Christmas Eve isn’t that uncommon), and are usually supplied by Curra’s or (this year) Rosie’s where Willie Nelson gets his tamales. Sadly, the Balderas Tamale Factory in Round Rock is no more. They made the best hot pork tamales and often commented on how surprising it was to see “a white boy ordering hot pork.”

Well, so far we’ve covered food & drink, movies & TV, music, and decorations. Next up, that holiday tradition: travel.

Three Days till Christmas: Movies & TV

December 22, 2005 • • 3 Comments

The first time I saw A Christmas Story was during the summer after my senior year of high school. It was one of those few films that made me laugh until I was crying and gasping for air. This one works whether it’s Christmas or not because it deals with such a timeless theme: kids want stuff.

I still laugh every time I watch it and since it’s in constant rotation around this time of year, it’s hard not to miss. Sometimes I try to just catch the best parts, but that’s like trying to assemble a best of CD by the Beatles. Can’t be done. Although, I think the whole episode concerning Ralphie’s use of the F-word around his dad (“a master who worked in profanity the way other artists might work in clay”) is a priceless bit as is the image of Ralphie sitting there with a bar of soap in his mouth while he hears his buddy take a beating for his crime over the phone. So I watch it every year. Several times.

The other ones I never miss are How the Grinch Stole Christmas because, let’s face it, the Grinch is cool. And of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas because we all need to be reminded from time to time about the importance of selecting the ugly tree. Besides, the scene in which Linus explains to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about is just fine filmmaking.

Four Days till Christmas: Music

December 21, 2005 • • 2 Comments

The decorations are up, and now it’s time to break out those once per year CDs and listen to some Christmas tunes. We have hundreds of CDs, but only four Christmas ones, so here they are:

  • Jingle Bell Jazz. It came out of the bargain bin years ago, but it really is good jazz with some cool takes on the classic caroles by Duke, Miles, Brubeck, Herbie Hancock and others.
  • Yule Be Miserable. This one came as a birthday gift a few years back from some friends who know me well. Click here for a good look at the cover. This is a great drunk and passed out in a bar with Santa blues and jazz collection featuring the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, BB King, and Billie Holiday. I look forward to this one every year.
  • Merry Christmas from Yo La Tengo. This one came from Yo La Tengo’s website a few years ago, but doesn’t seem to be available any longer. It’s three Santa songs that rock. I love Yo La Tengo, and I’d go to their Hannukah shows if I lived in New York.
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi. This one is, for me, the sound of the season.

I always look forward to these CDs each year. I suppose I could listen to them at other times than Christmas, but then they probably wouldn’t be as fun as they are when I only listen to them for two weeks at the end of the year. Well, the CDs are playing, the decorations are up. What’s next? Christmas TV. Yes!

Five Days till Christmas: Decorating

December 20, 2005 • • 3 Comments

In order to celebrate the winter holiday of my choice (Christmas) over the next few days, I’ll be posting about Christmas and Christmas-related things that I enjoy, starting with decorations.

We usually keep it very simple because we’re lazy about such things, but we eventually get it together and do some work just in time to leave it all up for a week or two. We don’t decorate excessively since the cat likes to test his gravitational theories by knocking things off tabletops, and the dogs enjoy chewing the tasty Christmas decor. Yes, simplicity is the way of a Brush Christmas.

The tree has been an interesting issue for us. We haven’t had one since 1997 when our first dog ate the forbidden fruit from the lower branches of the tree and developed knowledge of the difference between good-to-chew and bad-to-chew. Instead of a regular artificial tree, we’ve been using these cool wooden trees:

They’re simple, set-up and take-down are a breeze, and – I think – fairly hip in their understated way. This year, however, since we now live in a house with a room from which we can exclude the hounds and cat, we’ve set up a regular tree.

But you have to wait until Christmas to see it. Ha-ha! I can feel the suspense building already.