Tradition

When I was much younger, in my high-school and college years, I felt disdain for tradition. The concept of tradition seemed to me to embody an unwillingness to recognize and acknowledge changes in the world around us. I did not understand then that we do not necessarily demonstrate a fear of change when we accept tradition but, rather, that in embracing tradition we honor those who have had an impact on our lives. In some respects, we honor those people by adopting their traditions.

In my family, we had a tradition of having tamales and chile con queso on Christmas eve. I'm pretty confident that our tradition was adopted from the Mexican culture around us, though not necessarily as a means of honoring that culture. Whatever the origins of that family tradition, I have continued it in my adult life. My wife and I enjoyed that tradition last night. But traditions change, too. When I was a child and a teenager and a young adult, we always found a Mexican lady who made homemade tamales as our source of pork & jalapeño tamales. When making the chile con queso, my mother used bacon fat as the oil in which onions and bell pepper were cooked until they were translucent. Today, I use corn oil instead of bacon fat to make the chile con queso. I try to find pork & jalapeño tamales, but rarely buy them from a Mexican lady who makes them at home. Instead, I usually buy them from a Mexican tortilla and tamale outlet. This year, though, I ran out of time trying to find a source of tamales...I waited until it was too late to order my tamales. So, I found another source, but had to settle for chicken & tomatillo & jalapeño tamales from a large grocery store. Fortunately, they were excellent! Traditions change, but their essence seems to stay the same.

My wife and I started a tradition several years ago on New Year's day...though it's not really an embedded tradition yet...it doesn't necessarily happen every year. Our tradition is to have an unusual ethnic luncheon or dinner...or to snack on the various canned foodstuffs we exchange as "stocking stuffers" at Christmas. That's another tradition we've developed over the years; I buy for her little delights like smoked oysters, liver paté, kipper snacks, herring, pickled herring, deviled meats, tiny pearl onions, bags of specialty potato chips, and other such snacks and then, on New Year's day, we munch on them all day long. It's an off & on tradition, but it's ours. If we don't do the "stocking stuffer" munching, we try to have what once was considered an unusual meal...but today is not unusual at all. In years past, we've had Chinese dim sum, Thai food, Indian food, and other dishes that were once exotic...the only requisite for me was that some part of the meal had to be very spicy...I had to start the year with fire in my belly!

Today is Christmas day, so when my wife wakes up, we will engage in another tradition. We will exchange our stocking stuffer gifts and we will make breakfast. We usually don't exchange major 'secret' gifts but, instead, we'll jointly decide to splurge on something. Last year, it was a double oven. This year, it's badly-needed repair work on the house. But we do exchange stocking stuffers. And this morning we'll have a breakfast of chorizo con juevos, with lots of cilantro and slices of tomatoes. My wife wants me to wake her up by 9:30...she wanted to sleep in today because we stayed up late watching a movie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. And then, the tradition will continue!