2002-12-25 - 3:06 p.m.

"Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration." -Charles Dudley Warner

I sit wearily in the chair my back is aching, my eyes are red from lack of rest, I feel I am about to droop to the floor at any minute. I cant though and I force myself to straighten up as I glance up at the warden who passes by. The production line is not making its quota for the hour at this rate we could be here for hours more!

I glance nervously at the person near me they have a gleam in their eyes. I know this gleam. They wait till the second warden passes by and makes her move. The redness splatters upon my shirt during a misfire. �I�ve been hit! I fall down off my chair in defeat and agony I am leaving, I am going..I am�.My mother voice breaks my fantasy or should I say the warden?. �Girls quit messing around, you�re getting red tamale meat all over the floor.

I sit back in the chair with a smile as I hurriedly throw a piece of massa at my sisters direction. The second warden my husband is mixing the massa to make more of it gives me a look. �yah he says, quit messing around!� My sister and I both sigh but we are happy once again when my father the errand boy for the day brings in 4 different kinds of wine coolers. Whoo hooo! Party time now.

My sister and I call it the tamale chain gang. Through the years it�s been a tradition right before Christmas to get together and make tamales. One year we made over 85 dozen tamales. Each year my father says �never again�, and each year my mother gets carried away and buys too much meat and not wanting her to work so much we help out my sister and I.

I figure it�s a nice family tradition. If its not that many tamales its actually really fun to sit and talk to the family as we make them. It�s also really nice to give away for xmas holiday presents, something homemade. If you don�t know what tamales are it�s a nice little food that is made now a days different ways with different things in it.

The basics of it are massa or unsweet dough smoothed over a corn husk. Inside we put pork with a special red sauce my mother makes. Then you cook it. Of course we have made sweet tamales before and bean tamales. I�ve heard of people making fish and chicken tamales. Yuk!

Traditionally the head of a pig was used for it, since this is the best part of a pig, but sort of gross to look at. I remember as a kid I was curious to see what was in the sink hidden under towels. Boy was I surprised as I ran out shrieking as dead pig eyes followed me.

I have been the official spreader for years now. I spread the massa unto the dough with a knife, which most traditional Spanish folks use a spoon, I am unique though and use a knife. My sister Becky has been the fillerin person. She puts the meat just the right amount into the massa and rolls it up. My husband knows it all that�s why he is the second warden under my mother�s supervision and loves it. He knows how to make the special sauce and to mix the massa with salt and hot liquid oil.

When my parents pass away someday my husband and I want to continue the tradition. My sister can�t stand making them; she only does it to help out my mother. Hopefully we can get some friends of ours to pitch in and we can make it fun even for the kids, same traditions but fewer restrictions. My husband to this day jokes and says I could never divorce him cause he would leave with all the family recipes! If I think about it, it�s true! Hahaha.

Finding the Ranch, the beginning - Bzzz