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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas by Phone

I am recycling last years message. One reason is we are busy cooking. It seems like we end up celebrating with food. Our Christmas tradition includes tamales, chile, biscochitos, posole, enchiladas, frijoles, tortillas, chile balls (a meat ball fried in batter like chile rellenos) and sometimes empanadas. Gene's sister, Velma, makes the best empanadas, so guess we will leave that to her! Jennie came out to the house on Monday, yesterday we made the tamales and meat for the chile balls. Today was biscochitos and started the posole. After a break we will start the enchiladas in casserole, beans and tortillas while the tamales cook. Come on by and have a bite .. or two. Read down and participate in a phone call......


Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and the best holidays.


We don't send Christmas cards. We haven't for a few years. Back in the OLD days when our kids were little we would have cards made with a photo of them and send them out with a letter, not a mimeographed letter, a handwritten letter. The first year we were in Bolivia, 1974, I drew cards with pen and ink. I think I drew about 50 with a church and a llama on each one. Some were pretty good. :) The next year I found a printer that made a metal plate of my drawing and printed them with raised ink. (I don't know what that process is called) After the printing I had a wooden block with the metal cut out of my card on it. We did that for a few years. I continued the pen and ink for several years in the states, too. From Lubbock, Texas, in 1980, it was a prairie dog. Lubbock is famous for the prairie dogs.

When we moved here to Bastrop I did a water color of our house and had 8 1/2 x 11 inch color photo copies made. At that time they were $1 a piece. Pretty pricey. Probably sent over 100. It was a nice way to send out our new address and letter. I printed the letters on the computer on the copies. I did customize and write every letter I sent.

The next year, I drew the poinsettias above on the computer. I had a program called Color It and drew with the mouse. Not many realized I had drawn it as I printed them with the customized letter on nice parchment. One of Gene's sisters asked me where I got the stationary to print my letters. :(

I suppose it was in 1999 then, that we stopped sending cards. Gene started many years ago sitting down a Jack Daniels and water and with our address book and calling everyone he could reach on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That has turned into a great custom and that is our cards at this time in our life. So, if you want a call from Gene and talk to me, we need your telephone number. :)

P.S. To send your phone number, my e-mail link is in my complete profile. Scroll down or send to: jo at jocastilloart.com

6 comments:

Teresa said...

I love the menu! Sounds absolutely yummy... and a nice change from turkey.

Jo Castillo said...

Hi Teresa, In the old days we would be sure to be at my Mom's for Thanksgiving with the turkey and all. My folks usually had ham and turkey for Christmas, with red chile for sure for my Dad. Then at Gene's we would have the traditional New Mexican meal after midnight mass. People went house to house to eat posole and empanadas. A great custom.

Bag Blog said...

We had our Mexican food night on Christmas Eve. My brother forgot to bring tamales from Austin, but the enchiladas were wonderful(green sauce was the best). My sister-in-law made a new dessert called sopapilla cheese cake. She found the recipe on Recipe.com. They were great!

Hope you had a great Christmas!

Jo Castillo said...

Bag Blog, That cheesecake sounds wonderful. I just love sopapillas. I'm gluten free now, so have to forego flour things. I have a gluten free flour mix that Joanna got me and tried some tortillas, but they won't stick together, so come out like corn tortillas. :( It does make OK biscuits, pancakes, etc., though. HEB has some great corn tortillas called, Homestyle. And so...... Hope your Christmas was great, too.

Regina Calton Burchett said...

Jo - I love this card you've done - it looks great! And I always look forward to your call (which followed us across the country one year) :-)

Jo Castillo said...

Regina, thank you. It is always fun to call everyone. Gene does most of the calling and Jennie and I are cooking! I use those poinsettias now for gift tags, envelopes, etc. Fun to draw on the computer, haven't done it in ages. I need to get another program for that, the old one doesn't work on this new iMac.


About Me

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Bastrop, Texas, United States
I Grew up in a small town , Magdalena, New Mexico. I enjoy art and the pleasure other people get from my work. I always donate some of my sales and art to charities, especially for children. That started in Bolivia with Para los NiƱos. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." -- Winston Churchill

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