Not Easy Being Green

The Grinch lives in me. Every year, as December approaches, I get greener and greener.

Last night, however, we finally got the tree up and decorated. This morning we had snow. Not snow by the standards of some; more like something that might come out of a nearly-empty can of tree flocking, but still snow.

I'm feeling a mite festive.

Also improving the mood is the fact that we are again hosting Christmas. I've got a strange territorial thing happening. I love a house full of people, as long as it's my house. Over the hill and through the woods to Grandma's house is my idea of hell.

Christmas Eve will include the traditional luminarias or as they say in the city weird, Santa Fe, farolitos. I was poking around in the last year's Christmas photos and found shots of "lumies" at Casa de Kirby (above).

To construct luminarias you need brown paper sandwich bags, votive candles and sand. Fold the top of a bag to make a cuff; add a couple of inches of sand to bag; set the candle in the sand; light candle. Voila. Now repeat at least a hundred times for maximum affect.

Some people cheat and use electric luminarias, but the Kirbys have to do things the hard way. But we set up a sort of assembly line, so in no time we've put together an army of tiny fire hazards.

Candles in bags sound terribly lame, but the result is cool, much nicer than the Griswald's type of display via electric lights.

P.K.