Christmas Eve Tamales

 I love holiday traditions. It is so much fun to share with Melodie some of the things I was able to do as a child around the holidays. One of my favorites is tamales. It's not the tamale making I like. I really don't like it. I don't like to cook, so tamale making is more like a necessary evil. But I can't imagine Christmas Eve without eating tamales and therefore they have to be made. 
 Have you ever made tamales? It's not extremely difficult, it just takes such a long time. Especially when you make as many as we do. Here's a little history of tamale making for me.
We used to make and eat them on Christmas Eve. But people grew up and moved away and that made it easier to pick a weekend to get together to make them. Then we freeze them and save them for Christmas Eve. I have a terrible memory and don't vividly remember making them with my great-grandma. For some reason what I do remember is that other relatives would bring food to eat with the tamales. My uncle made the best enchiladas. I remember making them after my great-grandma passed away with my grandma, mom and aunt. Kind of. My memory isn't great.
 2006 was monumental. It was Melodie's first Christmas. She couldn't participate yet (she couldn't even eat them), but it was still cute to introduce her to the tradition of making tamales. We met at my mom's house (Bay Area in CA). I came from So Cal, one sister from AZ, and an aunt from WA. Turns out this was monumental for another reason. It was the last time we made tamales with my grandma. Of course, we didn't know it at the time.

We made our tamales, froze them and I brought ours home to So Cal. We invited a family from church over on Christmas Eve and I hosted my first tamale dinner.

 

 My grandma really was the one who knew what she was doing. So the next year, 2007, is when my mom and aunt had to figure it all out. The recipe for the filling wasn't very detailed and they did a good job, especially since my aunt wasn't there so they were figuring it all out over the phone. We met at my mom's house again, but this time we made them on Christmas Eve since we were there for the actual holiday. The filling is something my aunt and mom have been working on since. This year Melodie had her first taste and loved it!

 

From 2008 to 2010 we had tamale weekend at my mom's house. The filling was still being perfected.

 

2008 Tamale Making

 

 2008 Christmas Eve

 

2009 tamale making

 

2009 Christmas Eve

 

2010 tamale making

 

2010 Christmas Eve

 

2011 was the first time we had tamale weekend at my house. I have an appalling lack of kitchen supplies, but we made it work. Also, living in So Cal, there's great places to buy masa.

2011 tamale making

 

2011 Christmas Eve

 

And that brings us to this Christmas. This was the first time I wasn't able to go to tamale weekend. Actually, my sisters couldn't make it either. My first thought was that I would buy tamales for Christmas Eve. There are so many places around us that sell amazing tamales. But my mom suggested I try it. Then I had a friend who said she wanted to give it a try and bought a pot. So, I got a few more friends together and spent an afternoon making tamales. I did have to call my mom a few times, but it was a success. We did burn one batch, but I consider that a success because I didn't really expect any of them to turn out. My filling was a little spicy, but had good flavor. We also made some sweet corn tamales. We enjoyed eating the finished product that night. Melodie didn't like the filling (I think it was too spicy for her), but she loved the corn ones.

I was very excited to serve tamales on Christmas Eve that I was more involved with making.

    2012 tamale making   

 

2012 Christmas Eve

                                         

 Oh yeah, see all those cookies? Another fun tradition...exchanging cookie plates with friends and neighbors.

 

When I called my mom to tell her the tamale making was successful, she responded with how happy she was that the tradition would continue. I agree.