Our holidays have always been a mix of culture and traditions, but they're blended so well that it's sometimes hard to separate where one ends and the other begins. We eat tamales (de venado), with ketchup. Yep, ketchup (it's a habit leftover from childhood). We drink Abuelita hot chocolate. We make lots of fudge. We wait and wait and wait until we hear Last Christmas by Wham! play in some retail store so we can be filled with nostalgia. 

When I was a kid we never missed going to las posadas, and I remember whoever happened to be hosting always gave the kids paper bags full of hard candy, apples, oranges and cacahuates. Yes, we were happy to get fruit! I'm also old enough to remember perusing the Sears Christmas catalog and picking out a Strawberry shortcake bike. And a five-piece furniture set with canopy bed that must've been too big for Santa Clos to transport.

Of course, behind every good memory is a soundtrack, and in our house, the soundtrack happens to go from English to Spanish and back and forth. So I decided to make a mix-tape of what we like so that I could share with others. I call it a 'Mi Spanglish Holiday Mix Tape.' It's a mix that goes from Spanish to English, from grown-up songs to tunes that delight toddlers (or mine, at least). Hope you enjoy. I've linked most of the songs to iTunes in case you want to download.

1. Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus, Augie Rios
2. Baby, It's Cold Outside, A Very She and Him Christmas (Zooey Deschanel)
3. Christmas in Harlem, Kanye West
4. Los Peces en el Rio, Gipsy Kings
5. Feliz Navidad, Tito el Bambino
6. Come on! Let's Boogie to the Elf Dance! Sufjan Stevens
   
7. Run Run Rudolph, Los Lonely Boys
8. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, Glee
9. Party Hard, Little Isidore
10. Todo Lo Que Quiero Eres Tu, Kabah
11. El Burrito de Belen, Juanes
12. Miracle, Matisyahu (feat. Shyne)
13. Star of Wonder, Tori Amos
14. The Chipmunk Song, Christmas Don't Be Late
15. Rill Rill, Sleigh Bells
16. Lechon, Lechon, Lechon, Victor Manuelle
17. Feliz Navidad, Jose Feliciano
18. Christmastime is Here, Charlie Brown Christmas

So I'm kind of going to back into this story by starting with this picture my husband took of me and my new BF Juanes earlier this week. It was after a performance, and when I went up to him I said something like that it was such a pleasure to hear him or something very I-carried-a-watermelon-ish. As I'm saying it he's giving me this look. Juanes, Colombian roquero superstar, humanitarian, was giving me un look. And finally, he says to me with those squinty eyes you get cuando quieres reconocer a alguien: "Juro que te he visto antes." Red lights start flashing all around me: I'M MELTING. So hot. I'm totally and completely stupefied and smitten, just like that. I sort of shook my head like no, no we've never met before, and all the while I'm thinking waaaaay in the back of my head that I want to say, "Si, en tus suenos," but my mind is totally tangled and the words are not making their way to my mouth. Picture snapped, and I just sort of walked off in a total buzz.

Super babosa.

But all I can say is now that, ladies and gentlemen, is how major game gets played.

I've been a big Juanes fan -- of his music -- since the days of 'A Dios le Pido." But the school girl crush days are looong gone (okay except for Mark Wahlberg, I'll admit). Or were long gone. Damn you, Juanes and your jeans and your guitarrita singing songs like: Me enamora/ Que me hablas con tu boca me enamora.

So about how I came to meet Juanes -- This performance for was a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR. These are small, intimate mid-day performances for NPR's All Songs Considered, and the artists usually just play a few numbers. It's recorded, and NPR staff -- a crowd of maybe 30 people -- hang around and watch. My husband, who works there, called me last minute on Wednesday to see if I wanted to come over to see Juanes perform. Of course, I said Hell Yeah! Or I texted that, rather.

I got there a few minutes before while he was still warming up. He was on the electric guitar and had another dude playing the acoustic. At the request of someone, he played 'Camisa Negra,' and had a few false starts, as you can see in the video I posted below. Afterward someone asked, "So, he's like the Bono of Latin America, right?" You know, I guess you could say that. I mean, it has been said before. But to me, Juanes is Juanes. I think by now he's earned his own title. Of course, I could very well be biased <3 I drove away from NPR in my VW Routan (totally sexy, especially with the baby seat in the back) on a total Juanes high. Maybe I should stalk him, I thought. That would be very Pedro Almodovar-ish of me. I'll just settle for the Juanes high. I think I'm still on it. I haven't been this smitten in a very long time.

I heard a piece on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday afternoon that made me pause and a get a little choked up and lost in my own thoughts as I dug deep into the memories I have about my own childhood and my father, who passed away a few years ago. The story was about the music our father's listened to when they were our age. I was around four years old when my dad was my age, and along with lots of classic country and Vietnam-era groups and artists -- like Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival -- the Steve Miller Band was definitely the soundtrack of that particular time. It was the soundtrack to carne asadas or cleaning days, and my older brother and I loved it. When my dad wasn't playing that record on the big stereo, we had it spinning on our little Fisher Price record player in our room. My brother and I loved Abracadabra, and would just die anticipating the line "Black panties in an angel's face." We thought it was sooooo bad and would get beyond giddy with that line because we knew it was something not meant for children's ears.

A few hours later last night, I was at the grocery store when CCR's Have You Ever Seen the Rain? came on over the intercom, and it caught me unawares, and I thoughts of the NPR story and of my dad and it being Father's Day this weekend and I got that huge lump in my throat -- the one that's holding back a torrid of emotions. It's amazing how music can do that, connect you with the people you love, or people you've loved in a different time. Happy Father's Day dad. I'll play a song for you on your day.

I have a wide range of music on my iphone, and I can't really say I loooove one genre of music more than another. The last song that I downloaded that the toddler really likes and sings to is Black Eyed Peas' Imma Be. That song could probably get my grandma going, but let's not imagine such things. Anyway, today I was playing Nicki Minaj's Moment 4 Life and yeah, not too easy for a toddler to dance to. Soooo...

...a few weeks ago I downloaded a few Moona Luna songs. I'd been meaning to do it for a while since I've had a few friends asking if I had heard of them and if the toddler liked. Well, today I let 'er rip on the Bose, and toddler loooooved Brinca, Jump that she was brincando the whole time. I'm trying to teach her where to jump (floor, grass) and where not to jump (off the top of the slide, on the couch or bed). I let her jump, jump, jump like a crazy child for two rounds of the song. That should translate into fifteen more minutes of morning sleep time, right?

I must admit, I just can't really get that into children's music, but if it makes the toddler K happy, I'm a happy mama. I guess that's the point of it, right? Moona Luna is actually children's music that makes my Tex-Mex heart go bidi bidi. I'm sure its the accordian. It's like Pavlovian response for me. Which probably explains why I also love Julieta Venegas so much.

So a little about Moona Luna:

Moona Luna is the passionate second project of New York-based songwriter Sandra Velasquez and her critically acclaimed Latin band Pistolera.
For the last five years, Pistolera has toured extensively, delighting fans of all ages around the globe. During the making of Pistolera’s second album, Velasquez gave birth to her first child. But the experience didn’t slow her down.
In fact, with her daughter as inspiration, Velasquez wrote an album’s worth of songs geared for families. After writing exclusively in Spanish for Pistolera, she decided to make Moona Luna’s songs bilingual so that her simple messages of joy, discovery and perseverance would reach more young ears. The band includes Maria Elena on accordion, Inca B. Satz on bass and Sebastian Guerrero on drums.  Dan Zanes joins the Piñata Party on “Brinca, Jump.”

So that's who they are, but this is my favorite part in their About page:

Velasquez says that Piñata Party is her attempt to re-create the vibe she remembers and treasures from the backyard parties her parents would throw while she was growing up in San Diego, California. Moona Luna certainly caught the vibe: Piñata Party is like a rich and flavorful platter of bold and spicy carne asada. It is an invitation to sample the tastes and flavors of the world from a child’s sensibility—of experiencing the familiar in a way that is suddenly unfamiliar and new.

Damn, music that tastes like carne asada? I'm from Texas. I don't play around with that, but yeah, I'd say it's just about right.

We just got back from a week-long trip to Miami to visit the in-laws. We totally overindulged in things like the sun, pork, empanadas, jugos, cortaditos, Pitbull on the radio and Xuxa. Yes, Xuxa, as in the Brazilian bombshell actress, singer, performer for children but whom dads really, really like too. Thanks to Youtube and the toddler's tia's, Xuxa, pronounced Shoo-Sha, in case you don't know who she is, can be reincarnated for children of today with a few strokes of the keyboard.

Y la cancioncita de Xuxa, well, the toddler loves it, does her little merengue dance move to it.

Ilari, Ilari, Ilariê ... Oh, Oh, Oh! ... Ilari, Ilari, Ilariê ... Oh, Oh, Oh!

I was a little too old by the time la Xuxa hit the states, but I hear younger chicas' fond memories of her show and especially their Xuxa sandalias, which were the ultimate jelly shoe. I'll bet the toddler K would love those. It seems as if they still sell them -- but maybe that's only in Brazil. I definitely haven't seen them in the states. The toddler has a hideous pair of wool-lined crocs with Dora on them, which she picked out herself and her grandma bought for her, that she would wear every day if it were up to her. Her little feet hit the floor and she is literally already asking for us to put on her "totas." Her papa just bought her a pair of havaianas sandals -- also Brazilian -- but the toddler refuses to keep them on. Think she hates the material between her toes. I got a pair for myself and they actually bother me, too. Where's a Xuxa sandalia, child and adult size, when I need it?

As we were flipping the channels a few weekends ago we came across a Zumba infomercial and the toddler was totally mesmerized for a second, and then like a good Latinita, she started bailando to the musica. Pretty good for an 18-month old, and she definitely puts her papa's skills to shame.

Zumba, for the uninitiated, is "an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party that’s moving millions of people toward joy and health." It kind of seems cultish to me, but maybe that's just because the thought of all these people -- like hundreds or thousands at the annual Zumba convention -- attending what amount to dance fitness-party seminars reminds me of the last season of Dexter. Anything with a crazed following = Creepy.

I've had this fantastic, soul-filling song playing in my head for the past week. It's my new favorite holiday song, and I say holiday because it's not a Christmas song -- it's a pop song about Hanukkah. It's by Matisyahu, a Hassidic reggae artist from Brooklyn. He wrote this really great essay on NPR -- and is interviewed in the accompanying radio piece on All Songs Considered -- about the dearth of good Hanukkah songs, Adam Sandler's song notwithstanding, and how Christmas albums outnumber Jewish albums 227 to 1. But an interesting thing is that so many of the great Christmas songs we've come to cherish, like White Christmas and The Christmas Song were all written by American Jewish singer-songwriters. I knew that, think I saw it on a PBS documentary once. Well, this is a Hanukkah song, and it's the best holiday song I've heard in a very long time. It's really uplifting and just makes you feel good about life, love and believing. It's everything that a holiday song should be.

Here's part of the lyrics, and you have to listen to it on the video below. Then go download it on itunes. And have yourself a Merry Festivus!

Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all
Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all

[Chorus]
Do you believe in miracles
Am I hearing you, so am I seeing you
Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right
Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle

El Burrito de Belen is officially the toddler K's favorite Christmas song, and in particular she likes the Juanes version that's on the Superestrellas En Navidad album. She really shakes her hips to it.

Si me ven, si me ven, voy camino de Belen

Tuqui tuqui tuqui tuqui/ tuqui tuqui tuqui ta/ Apurate mi burrito/ que ya vamos a llegar!

Okay, I like it too. I'm not so into the Christmas songs that are just English translations -- like the 'All I Want for Christmas is You' in Spanish. For that, I'll stick to Mariah. Or the young girl from Love Actually. I'm not really a fan of Hugh Grant, the man, but I'm a sucker for most of his movies. Especially this one. And About a Boy. And Four Weddings and a Funeral.

No black Friday shopping for me yesterday. Instead, I took the toddler to play with a friend and have lunch, then we came home and put up the tree. With the husband recovering from surgery on his collar bone, I didn't even attempt to be all supermom and go out and buy a real tree, throw it up on top on the minivan and tie it down on my own. I just pulled out the pre-lit artificial one we had in the basement. Super elegante, I know. But when my husband bought it a few years ago we were uber-broke and I was adamant that we weren't going to spend unnecessary money on a tree. We were going through a lot in my family too -- it was a few weeks before my father passed away and he was very sick. So I came home one night after visiting my father and my husband had this little tree up. He said not to worry about the money, we'd recoup it eventually if we used it again.

No other Christmas tree has ever made me feel so uplifted. And even if it is a bit on the bare Charlie Brown side, it's got a lot of meaning now to me.

The toddler K was so excited to see me piece it together and plug it in. Last year, she sat slumped in her bumbo chair watching us put up the lights and decorations on the real tree we hauled in. This year's tree is all bare on the bottom branches to keep her little wandering hands off those decorations.

I put on Pandora to "All I Want for Christmas" radio. Two things: One, I really, really love hearing "Last Christmas" on the radio or catching it playing overhead in department stores this time of year. But TWICE already I've heard the Glee version, versus original by Wham! I haven't even heard the original yet on the radio.

Nooooooo! This can't be happening.

Can't we start a Facebook campaign to ban it from the radio? No offense to Gleeks, but it's gotta be the original. Oh, and check out that Youtube video of the Wham! song. The '80's were so fantastic AND horrific, huh?

Also, Elf is fast becoming one of my favorite holiday movies because of all its glorious pendejadas. I can watch it a million times and it always makes me laugh. And that's what I want most during the holidays.

My sister-in-law is obsessed with Zooey Deschanel -- she's her fashion icon. She is pretty fabulous, even if she is a bisnitch in 500 Days of Summer (another movie I LOOOOVE). I like the way she sings -- this scene from Elf of them singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is too funny. I'm gonna have to download it from the Elf soundtrack.

Oh, and am I the only one who thinks Zooey Deschanel looks and talks just like Debra Winger?