We woke up this morning to this face. This happy face that truly encompasses the feeling of the season. It was the loss of our antique nutcracking set that forced the little ones to kidnap one of the decorative Nutcrackers and load him up with one of these beautiful and locally grown pecans. Along with him, there also happened to be three beautiful faces staring at us too. Beautiful because they we our children who just so happened to look like us.
This is probably how new traditions were formed over the years. Out of necessity. We were devastated over the loss of our centuries old nutcracker set and forgoing busting out the hammer, we had to use this once, "Oh no touching! Decoration only" piece. However, after spending hours with our new open mouthed friend, we wondered why we hadn't introduced him into our holiday traditions years ago? I mean, he was always there. His job is to crack nuts. Why was he limited to a staunch existence on the mantel for the entire season? New year, new tradition. We are fans of the nutcracker now for both beauty and its multi-purpose uses: decor, nut cracking & classic children's entertainment. The pecans were also delicious by the way.
Photos: K. Rodriguez & Q. Rodriguez
