A Christmas Card

At the moment Jose Feliciano is singing "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas,"

Christmas in Arizona, #1, 5x7"acrylic

Navaho Christmas, Arizona, 5X7 acrylic

Grand Canyon Christmas, 5X7 acrylic

Most of my very early Christmases were spent in the desert, rather like around Bethlehem.
Some were in El Paso. El Paso has a really long history of luminarias. Phoenix is trying to adopt it, but I know where it started. It was established in El Paso way back, and by the 1950's planes landing at the El Paso airport on Christmas Eve always made a special pass over the city after dark because whole neighborhoods would be outlined in the little brown (yes BROWN, not white) paper bags, weighted with sand and a votive candle burning inside, spaced three feet apart outlining all sidewalks, roof lines and fences. The city would agree to turn out the electric street lights for the evening to get the right effect. It was breath taking!
Boy Scout troups would help their neighborhoods, especially the elderly people, to set them up and light them. All other Christmas illumination would be turned off for the evening. I wish I could show you all what it looked like for that one evening. Cars of families would tour all the streets with their headlights off to see it.

Why? Well to guide the Three Wise Men so they wouldn't get lost, of course! We combined customes very naturally there, there would be the Christmas Tree, and it is base was La Nacimiento, naturally. Of course it was best if your main nativity figures had a removeable baby Jesus, because he was to be added Christmas Eve in a special traditional way. However we did NOT wait until January 6th to open presents. There was no way!

Growing up during the Baby Boom years, the whole world was full of kids. The war was over, and the phrase "well, there was a war on," as an explanation for things began to fall out of use eventually.

Peace on Earth, "as it is in Heaven." It IS natural.