Friday, December 25, 2009

Bonfire, Bonfire, BONFIRE!

Greetings from the high desert! I am writing this from Abiquiu New Mexico and it is COLD here. The train ride here was blessedly uneventful and the scenery (while it was light out) was pleasant. It snowed almost the whole way here. Or at least, there was snow on the ground almost the whole way here. The peanut butter filled pretzels were just right.
Mama Bird and I came to a deal last night. I won't make disparaging comments about her buying expensive, well made items ($40 socks, for example), and she won't make fun of how I tend to over prepare for travel. And the reason she won't make fun of my preparedness is we had to stay in Santa Fe the night my train came in. See, it snowed here. A lot. And the roads were horribly bad. She didn't want to be driving in that PLUS it would be dark before we go to the cabin. But, she hadn't planned on staying in Santa Fe, so she didn't have things like a toothbrush and toothpaste. Or lotion. I had all those things. Plus a few more (I also had a wine key that came in handy last night). I won't be making any more disparaging comments about her expensive well made things because I realized that I too tend to spend a lot for things that are worth it (I want a $30 garlic press).
Last night was one of the best Christmas eves I've ever had. It was cozy, we had good food, we sat around and sang Christmas songs. The church across the plaza from us has a bonfire every year. A great huge thing that has to be visible for miles. We had never been to it so we figured we would go this year. Midnight Mass was at 10, and so we kept peeking out the window, and sometimes walking over to the church to see if there was anything to see. Nope. So we finally figured that the fire would be lit after Midnight Mass, and we settled down in the living room to reminisce. Mama Bird got up to get something out of the kitchen and all of the sudden I heard her say "bonfire". I had to ask her what she meant and she said "bonfire, bonfire BONFIRE!" What we hadn't noticed was the piles of wood in front of the churches fence/wall. Quite a few of them in fact. And now they were all lit. It looked like the church itself was aflame. People were gathering and going in, and the processional was getting ready to go in. We were outside to watch them all go in to the church and watched the fires for a bit, but we didn't think we could stay up another hour to go see the big bonfire. We walked back to our cabin under a cloudless sky filled with all the stars you can't see when you live in a city. It was perfect.

I have just been informed that next year for Christmas, Mama Bird wants an axe.


--Little Bird is prepared for this

5 comments:

Mama Bird said...

Let me explain the axe I want is a beautiful handmade object by a company called Best Made, and you can purchase a lovely case for your axe for a mere $75. If you're interested here's the website for it.

http://www.bestmadeco.com

Little Bird said...

What she's not telling you is that the axe itself will cost $250. But then, I'm not supposed to make disparaging remarks about her well made, freakishly expensive things. ;)
They really are pretty axes.

coyote said...

Mama Bird took an axe
And gave the Christmas tree forty whacks
When she'd seen what she had done
She gave the Hanukkah bush forty one

Happy whatever to you two. :)

There are some very nice and shockingly pricey axes out there. Are you after a felling, broad or hewing axe? Swedish made?

I've never heard of an axe referred to as "pretty" before.

Mama Bird said...

Let me know that you made it home OK. The chicken pot pie is in the oven. Made it with the leftover sour cream and gravy from the roast chicken. Smells fantastic.

Little Bird said...

Coyote, that was great! I hope your "whatever" was great! Have a good New Years!