Tis the Season...for TAMALES!!

This that time of year when the Christmas decorations go up and hardworking Mexican women brave prepare their kitchens for tamale making! So this was my first year in a very very long time making tamales, for the last three Christmas seasons I've been in Utah and previous to that....well I was a single gal and frankly spending very late nights spreading masa was not really on my agenda (I know bad girl)! In my family my oldest sister, Cata, has taken the lead and selflessly has helped preserve the traditions of our grandmothers. There is almost a whole day dedicated to just making the meat and chile and to preparing the masa for spreading! We then have to soak corn husks so that they are soft and pliable. After all that people are so anxious to eat tamales that we are willing to stay up to wee hours of the morning spreading masa on the husks, so my sister can add the meat, close them up and put them in the tamale pot (huge huge pot that fits like 13 dozen tamales!). It's really like a two to three night event and the first night your so excited for the tamales that sleep is just not an option...LOL!! By the next night you can probably only hang till about midnight and since my sister works that just about takes up her whole weekend so then we extend it to the following weekend. Its like a love love hate relationship for the tamale preparer. You love love the wonderful memories they prompt of your grandmother of simpler days of Christmas and family time. However, it is so labor intensive a tinge of hate creeps in as you spread and spread and spread that masa on each and every odd shaped corn husk, they never seem to end. But then the love comes back as you smell them and then get to taste the first tamale, like having a baby maybe, you just forget and enjoy!
The last two nights Jose and I helped make tamales and boy were we pooped and all we did was spread masa, imagine how the preparer feels, my mom and my sister...what would we all do without them?!

Thank you for keeping tradition, thank you for teaching it, I promise I will preserve it and pass it down to my children! I will sign off now and I'm off to eat Chocolate Abuelita and a tamalito!!

Well Here We Are

I guess if I posted more consistently I would be so far behind on pictures and wouldn't be jumping all over the place! Well, here we are 7 months in Arizona and almost 8 months since Jose graduated from BYU. In the time since graduation, we have moved, started new services for Eva in Arizona, Vandro had a 1st birthday and started to walk, Jose took the MCAT, and undertook the very grueling task of applying to 16 medical schools and received 16 secondaries (to a primary application), has received two rejections and 6 interview invitations, Moved again, Vandro runs (not just walks) and "plays" soccer, Eva has grown about 2 inches and is waiting for her big girl car seat and big girl stroller wheelchair, and mom returned to school (Mom, Gabby)!

It really feels like a lot has happened but on the same token, we feel in the same place. All of Jose's medical school interviews have been insightful and exciting. Every time he has an interview, his desire to become a physician is confirmed! I can not tell you how amazing it is to see your spouse as their best self. Jose just lights up with anything medical, we are so grateful for being this far on our journey. The interesting part is that there is so much more waiting to be done with respect to applying and getting accepted into medical school. He has gotten as far as the interview process and well that's huge and great, the more interviews the better chance of you getting into some where. However, it can be from now till March and the latest July before we could potentially get an answer of, Yes (your accepted into our school), No (sorry but no offer) or Waitlisted (we want you but there is no space for you)...the latter two would seriously be heartbreaking so we're going for a solid YES! The waiting is torture!!!!

In the meantime, Jose applied to be a substitute teacher at a couple of school districts here in Tucson and adjusting to being with the babies (and their schedules) more, which I think makes him miss school a lot more than he thought...LOL!! We are really enjoying our time together, Jose and I and the babies!

I will try to post more often, hence have more pictures!