Christmas Season Begins!

Nothing can beat the Nutcracker at Christmas

What Kicks off the Christmas season better than seeing the Moscow Ballet performing the Nutcracker? Only watching it in The Majestic Theater, one of the most lavish over-the-top, yet gorgeous theaters around. It’s very aptly named. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to our second ballet in this theater. Built in 1929 and designed in a Spanish Mediterranean style, it's filled with countless details. You could sit for hours and still not notice all of them. The

The Majestic Stage

Majestic seats around 2,275 and the night we attended the Nutcracker performance, almost every seat was filled.

Since there is considerable Hispanic influence here, we’ve been enjoying diverse cultural celebrations and the season has only just begun. Christmas lights downtown were turned on the night after Thanksgiving so on Saturday as we were fighting our way through traffic (actually we weren’t moving most of the time) we were able to appreciate several of the brilliantly lit decorations.

Beautiful!

The city is filled with poinsettias, which makes sense because they are native to Latin America and many of them come from Mexico. I absolutely love the poinsettias as they are extremely cheery with their bright red flowers, but I have to enjoy them other places because we can’t have them at home. They are poisonous to cats, and Sadie loves to eat plants!

As with all cultural traditions in Mexico, there’s always a legend behind them and the Poinsettia has its own. Supposedly, a long time ago there was a poor little Mexican girl called Pepita who didn’t have a present to give the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked to the chapel, her cousin Pedro tried to console her by telling her that even the smallest gift, given by someone who loves him, will make him happy. Pepita picked a handful of “weeds” along the side of the road and put her bouquet of weeds at the bottom of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet burst into bright red flowers, and everyone was sure that it was a miracle. From that day on, Poinsettias have been known as the ‘Flores de Noche Buena” (flowers of the good night, referring to Christmas Eve).

Shoulder to shoulder to get tamales.

We participated in another tradition over the weekend by going to a Tamale Festival. Although neither one of us is a fan of tamales, we had to go see what it was all about. After a number of days of cold, misty and rainy weather, the day was sunny and warm, perfect for an outdoor festival. Forty vendors were selling tamales for a dollar each – it was such a bargain. The crowd was shoulder to shoulder in most places, and the lines were incredibly long at every stand. In addition to the tamale stands, there were, of course, a few beer stands where the lines were just as long. Musical  entertainment was provided by various groups in an arena built into the side of the Riverwalk and was a lot of fun. A few in the audience got up to dance to the delight and laughter of the rest of us. There were also mariachi groups strolling through the crowds.

Fun music to go with the tamales and beer.

Of course, I had to find out why tamales are such a big deal here at Christmas. It seems that making tamales is a tradition that is over 5,000 years old. Evidently the Mayan warriors took women along with them to cook and because they were always on the move; they needed food that was easy to carry and eat. A tamal wrapped in corn husks worked perfectly. It’s not clear why but much later, the tamales became food for festivals and became very popular in the southwest US for Christmas.  Everyone seems to have their own recipe, and we noticed major differences in the ones we ate at the festival. Yes, we each sampled four different kinds!

San Antonio Riverwalk at dusk.

After leaving the festival, Steve and I walked most of the Riverwalk to take in the lights. It was a warm evening; the Rio Taxies were decked out with loads of Christmas lights, and they were packed with people enjoying the lights and decorations from the riverside shops and restaurants. One of the taxies even had a caroling group. All of the shops and restaurants along the river were completely decked out with lights and most of the restaurants had gigantic lines of people waiting to be seated. More photos can be found at this link (if the link doesn’t work, paste the link into your browser) https://plus.google.com/photos/102840684536112573599/albums/6090548827291903585

Our festive day was a great way to get into the holiday spirit. Our Christmas decorating is done, well at least the top 2/3’s of our tree is decorated. The second day it was up Ali decided he could reach underneath the branches and knock off the balls. We had Christmas balls flying around the room and even into the bedroom. Each time he knocked one off, I put it back on the tree higher up. It has spoiled his fun and the tree looks kind of strange – as if someone left in the middle of decorating and didn’t finish it.

Now that Christmas is just around the corner and as you are getting ready for the holidays, I hope you stop and breathe and remember it’s not the gift but the thought that counts! Wishing you and your family a happy holiday season and continued joy into the new year.

Thailand, India, Mexico and Israel - Tastings from Around the World

Diverse cultures abound here in San Antonio, and we love living here because we both love learning about other traditions and customs. San Antonio’s population is a mix of numerous nationalities, and we are finding it fascinating observing and participating with people from other cultures who are celebrating and honoring their ancestors’ holidays.

Bangkok 54 - best Thai food we've found in the US!

We’ve enjoyed a “tasting from around the world” this past weekend beginning Friday night with the best Thai dinner that we’ve ever had outside of Thailand. Bangkok 54 was a very lucky find because my initial Internet search began with a search for a good Vietnamese restaurant, and while searching for restaurants with excellent reviews, several Thai restaurants came up. Since we both love Thai as well as Vietnamese food, I scanned reviews until I found a restaurant that had multiple 5-star reviews, and it happened to be Thai. The inside wasn’t fancy still it reminded us of local restaurants that we’d visited in Thailand. We received an immediate warm welcome by a tiny little Thai woman; it was just like walking into a local Thai eatery. The food was fresh, flavorful and seriously spicy hot, just like in Phuket (not the American “watered down” version). Our mouths tingled for quite some time after we’d finished dinner. Bangkok 54 is now at the top of our favorite restaurants list, and we’ll without doubt be going back often.

Saturday afternoon we headed to downtown San Antonio to “Diwali San Antonio”. Diwali (or Divali or Deepavali) is the Indian “festival of lights”. It’s an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn every year, and it spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair. We arrived early so stopped into a bar for a drink. Only by luck, I chose a table so that Steve sat just below the Ravens mascot sign. He thought this must be a good luck omen for their game on Sunday (not to be as they lost!). So much for drinking to a Ravens victory and back to the festival . . . .

Absolutely beautiful and graceul

A long string of booths providing traditional Indian food was one of the main features of the festival. We walked around to see what they each had to offer. As they were well into cooking their specialties, the smells of curries, samosas and biryanis mingled around us so that our mouths were watering and already beginning to anticipate fantastic tastes.  Entertainment provided by a few young students singing traditional songs followed by dance groups representing various states in India started off the SA Diwali festival. A great addition to the program was that an emcee explained which state the dance came from and what it signified. He also gave us information about the state being represented. There are numerous classical and folk dance forms in India, and we got to see several of them before the food smells overwhelmed us and our stomachs demanded to be fed.

Delhi representatives

Samosas were our first choice. They were so incredibly melt-in-your-mouth scrumptious that we had to go back to that same booth to get a couple more. A samosa is a triangular pastry stuffed with curried potatoes, peas and loaded with spices and then fried until crispy. Ours were extremely spicy and were the best we’ve both had since leaving the UK! A mother and daughter stopped to ask what we were eating because obviously we had a blissful look on our faces. The food they had chosen was way too spicy for them, so they were hoping for a recommendation that didn’t leave their mouths on fire. The samosas certainly wouldn’t have been a good choice for them.

While wandering down the row of booths perusing each of the menus, we watched to see what delicious offerings others were carrying away. We finally settled on a Pav Bhaji that we shared. It’s a lentil (dhal) dish originating from Mumbai. This one was also incredibly spicy and left our mouths tingling for the rest of the evening. I wish we would have had room to taste other dishes, but there was just too much to choose from, and we’d pigged out on the samosas. Local restaurants provided the booths, so we now have a list to visit when Steve is craving an Indian meal.

Lighting candles for Diwali

Lighting of the candles is really what Diwali is all about, so we followed a crowd down several flights of stairs to some fountains where people were placing lighted candles into the water at the bottom. I’m guessing for those who were from Indian heritage, they were saying a prayer to Goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth, love and prosperity). For the rest of us, we just appreciated a truly beautiful tradition!

You can see more photos from the evening by clicking here: Diwali

On Sunday, Steve had a Grand Prix plus a couple of American football games (including the Ravens) to watch. However; we managed to fit in another trip downtown for Dia de los Muertos (Mexican Day of the Dead) celebrations. Since this holiday originated in Mexico, it’s very popular here in San Antonio. The Dia de los Muertos honors the dead with festivals and celebrations. History says that it combines indigenous Aztec rituals with Catholicism brought to Mexico by the Spanish invaders in the early 1500’s.

One of the unique alters

We wandered through the exhibits of altars which were unique to the person or persons they were honoring. Dia de los Muertos altars are decorated with photos of the deceased, painted skulls, flowers and things that the deceased really loved in life.

Of course, there were several booths of food – everything from burritos, tacos, fajitas and gorditas to carnitas – truly authentic Mexican dishes. There were smells of frying onions, sizzling meat, and you could watch them preparing your order, so the food was tasty and freshly prepared. Lines were long at every booth but judging by the smiles on everyone’s faces; it was well worth the wait! Steve headed first for the panadería for a taste of Pan de los Muertos, a sweet bread that has the shape of bones on the top. (I think he endorses the motto “life is uncertain – eat dessert first”) It wasn’t what we were expecting. It tasted like a doughnut but was much heavier and more condensed and baked rather than fried.

Steve with his Pan de los Muertos

Because the afternoon had warmed up, we decided a beer was in order before making our way to the entertainment area. Children performed dances from both Spain and Mexico starting with a group of tiny little girls who must have been only around 3-years old. Dancers in various age groups progressed to more and more complicated footwork and twirling throughout the program. All of them had painted on skull faces and dressed in vibrant, colorful costumes and headdresses. The final dance was a flamboyant flurry of vivid skirts.

Beautiful dance, beautiful girls and beautiful costumes!

I absolutely love the concept of Dia de los Muertos. It celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties and building alters, rather than the morose idea than when you die that’s it.

For more vivid photos of the dancers click on Dia los Muertos

Added to our tastes from other countries, we’ve just recently had Israeli falafels that were just as good as the ones that we had in Israel. mmmm – were they ever yummy!! I can’t believe our luck in finding authentic ethnic food - it’s brilliant!

All of these recent fun festivals and good food brings to mind the saying

“you don’t need a silver fork to eat good food” Paul Prudhomme. 

This saying was certainly true for our weekend treats and our falafels because we were either using very inexpensive or plastic forks and spoons or mostly our hands!! But the food and entertainment equaled those we’ve found in other countries which left us filled and contented!

Déjà vu

Large number of people have these experiences

Have you ever had a déjà vu experience? And do you feel that time is now passing by like a speeding bullet? Well, combine the two of those, and you have the past six weeks of our lives. September saw Steve and me experiencing déjà vu from our earlier years where we both traveled and never saw each other. We were lucky to be able to combine work with visiting family and friends while managing to juggle our trips so that when one arrived home in the evening one day, the other left the following morning. No cat sitter was needed. We spent the whole six weeks like passing ships in the night.

There’s a lot to be said for not spending 24/7 with your spouse. When you do catch up, there’s so much to talk about and share. September seems to be our busiest time for work, it’s also our anniversary and my birthday. This year, Steve was in England for our anniversary, unusual because I’m usually the one away. For my birthday a week later, I was working an exhibition in Philadelphia. But wait – on my birthday last year I was working the same exhibition, but in Las Vegas. A year ago the clients gave me a small birthday cake and sang to me while this year I had a bite-sized piece of red velvet cake at the final reception. Mmm, birthday cake - déjà vu!

We made a point of seeing daughters and grandsons while on trips to the East Coast but we travelled separate weeks. It brought back memories of traveling back from the UK to see them – time with them was too short, but much more focused than when we lived close to them. Again - déjà vu.

All of this led me to lament that “time is now speeding by too quickly as I get older”, but I wondered – what makes it seem so? Of course, being a Google addict, I had to “google” it. The “experts” (whoever they are - scientists) all agree that time appears to go by faster when you are older, but they aren't sure why. There are theories that say it’s because you have more new experiences when you are younger and these stand out in your memory, so time doesn’t seem to go as fast. These same experts, speculate that there aren’t as many “memorable events” when you get older, which makes time seem to drag. But wouldn’t that mean as a child you race from one memorable experience to the next, so time goes by fast? The experts then go on to say that for experiences such as a young student being off school for a summer break, times slow down, and summer seems endless. Haven’t they just contradicted themselves? I know from my experiences that growing up on a busy, working farm in the middle of nowhere with no one to play with, the summers stretched endlessly, but nothing memorable happened. Time seemed to drag by.

In the blink of an eye!

One article that I read by a professor said “speeding time is not an illusion: almost all of us faced far steeper learning curves when we were young. Most adults do not explore and learn about the world the way they did when they were young; adult life lacks the constant discovery and endless novelty of childhood.” Not so for me now because now I constantly have new experiences and learn new things but time is still rushing by too fast.

Columbus was busy discovering America during the Borgia times

A recent example of learning lots of new things and truly enjoying it is that while Steve was away, I took the opportunity to catch up with my historical fiction reading and watching the original, and extremely racy, version of the Borgia series (the one released in Italy). Of course, I had to go to Google several times and read up on the history of the characters and have to say the writers were tremendously historically correct. I learned volumes about that period in the Vatican, and about the wars between Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Can’t wait for the next series to come out on Netflix!

My reading selection also focused on history, but I was reading about the Norsemen (later called Vikings) invading England and a bit of the history of the Romans. It’s normal for me to have several books on the go at once. Again I went to Google several times to learn more, so I was learning loads. I was also reading about cholesterol in the diet. The cholesterol book wasn't a fun read but was educational. It’s a wide range, I know but at least the historical books covered the same time frame, from the late 700’s through the 900’s.

I want to leave you with something to ponder as your days flash by in a blur:

“Our life is made up of time. Our days are measured in hours;

our pay measured by those hours; our knowledge is measured

by years.... And yet time eventually runs out and you wonder

in your heart of hearts if those seconds, minutes, hours, days,

weeks, months, years and decades were being spent the best 

way they possibly could.”

― Cecelia Ahern

I also want to recommend a wonderful TED Talk entitled “How to Live Passionately – No Matter Your Age”. It’s a must listen to and I can guarantee author Isabel Allende will make you think about your life. Here’s the link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/isabelle_allende_how_to_live_passionately_no_matter_your_age

Are you living passionately?