It that time of year! If you look around you, almost everywhere you go, you will see festive lights, crowds gathering at Christmas parks, packed ice rinks and, of course, tons of suckers, I mean, people at shopping malls. Yes, the holiday season is in full swing!

But there is another season that is in full swing. A type of activity that involves tons of minutes of prep time. Perhaps tons of pair of hands and definitely tons of love, graciousness and tons of gratitude.

The season I’m referring to is TAMALE Season! Most call it TAMALES! TAMALADAS “We’re making tamales”, to be more precise.

Making tamales around this time is special to a lot of people. It’s a time to gather around in a small kitchen and spend the next several hours making tamales. And we’re not talking making a dozen or two. We are talking big numbers here. In some cases, some people will make up to the hundreds.

The season unofficially starts in the first weekend of December. And usually culminates around the 25th of December. I say usually because many of these seasons end well into the new year – January, February, and even March. One reason for this is because – as I mentioned earlier that so many get made- people usually store some in freezers and eat the well into the year! Unlike a taco, which needs to be eaten right there and then, tamales could last a long time.

So today, we go on a bit of a road trip. We’ll speak to Libby. Libby is mother to Lorie and Denise Garcia. Denise and Lorie are real close friends of the show. Every year, they partake in the process of making tamales along with their mom (Libby) and a few other close friends.

Libby tells us a little bit about how they started making tamales. Then she tells us how her girsl got into it.

We finish off the episode with a short story of my own. A story that tells you why I regard tamales making as one of those life experiences which got me closer to my mother and why tamales are so special to me.

We laugh, we cry and then we eat the tamales we made!