Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

Food, for as much of a gourmand I’d like to think of myself, food takes a lesser center stage during the holidays for my little family than it might for many others.

It is not so much the crud hand we were dealt, but what one does with it that has helped us stick together through thick and thin.

For us, this holiday week, it may be about choice, adventure, and travel. There’s been a pilgrimage I’ve been making for several years now to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and still at times called just “Hot Springs”.

My youngest kiddo is 18 this year, and will pilgrimage to her boyfriend’s neck of the woods to comfort him and his mother during this most awful of anniversaries for him so says this quietness.

Hot Springs is truly the land of Truth, or Consequences, feeling hotter and steamier this year given our present cultural and political climate. I think of what lies deep beneath our feet, in hidden caverns not seen for ages and perhaps stowed away from prying eyes and those who won’t know. Always warmer than the more green and opulent North, though it has a few its finest jewels hidden away from those underneath a certain tax bracket, it welcomes everyone to its belly and has a surprising music scene.

The waters have brought me much healing and relief from my worst pains, both in body and in my heart and soul. I have laughed, cried, sobbed and raged between its adobe walls and hidden in colorful rooms and grand tubs. The art there is special, and as a hopeless rock person I can get lost for hours on stone and rock shops.

I’m not sure I can visit this year but the pilgrimage remains an urge I might not be able to deny. I’m without some specific resources this season but I’m planning on exiting south to once again give grace and thanks for what may be the seventh year in a row. It’s so awesome to have something else I love from so long.