Posadas and Pinatas

This year the we spent Christmas with Tim's family in LA. Bijou was very proud and told everyone, "Were going to ELLLL A!" Now it was hard to think about for going your comfortable traditions in your own home to go and experience a very different and religious Christmas! Ha! I was raised with a dash of winter solstice, a tablespoon of Santa, a cup of feasting, and a sprinkle of guilty consumer love. Which has been happily passed down and embraced. I had no idea what to expect with the notions of mass, baby Jesus, and pinatas.
After a 'fam gone wild' at the airport with projectile barfing , and Tim bracing Bij in the airplane bathroom while we landed, we arrived as a motley crew from Oreeegon. All of us feverish and fluish we greatfully checked into a hotel and dipped each smelly babe into a warm bubble bath, then into jammies, and bed.
Tim's Grandma moved here fifty some years ago from Mexico City and has lived in the same little house in Marina Del Rey ever since. She raised all six kids in that house, lost her husband, and has had the same Christmas and posadas every year. Besides the new frightining glass tower high rises surrounding the neighborhood it is very sweet and normal, like home.
The family, especially aunt or "teacher Stella", is making this year super special because Bijou and Jackson are the only kids in the family right now and so they are all excited to show us a true Delgado Christmas.
Posadas is where half the family grabs little lanterns and a statue of Mary and Joseph and donkey and palmtree and they go to each door of the house and sing sweet spanish songs about how they have traveled far and need a place to stay. The other half of the family stays inside and sings songs turning them away until finally the last verse they are let in. Then Bijou got to place the baby Jesus in his manger, which she did quickly and rather threw him in.... So she went back to tuck the ceramic infant in so he would stay warm. I don't know if it was the warmth of the candel lit lamps, the sweet singing, the family, or the LA winter but it was just lovely.
Following Posadas was the exciting pinata. A huge traditional one and the oldest cousins got to climb up on the roofs and hold the ropes. A position I could tell meant more then one would think. After the kids gave it their best the woman giggled and got up there, hiking up skirts and posing like a baseball player. Their Aunt Kathy, high school principal, gave it a serious thrashing. It was grrreat!
After the pinata it was feasting and presents and Christmas carols sung to Aunt Tampson's violin. It left us all with a warm glow in our hearts and a sense of re-newed tradition in my spirit. Baby Jesus tucked warmly in his manger, Mary and Joseph got a stable to sleep in, and a family carried on the tradition of many families before. It was a treat and a treasure that I will always remember.