“What?” Hale blinked.
Saoirse held up hers. “You pull the ends. They pop. There are treasures inside.” Demonstrating, hers made a littlepopas it came apart. A colorful paper hat, a paper with a joke on it, confetti, and a snowman charm fell onto the table.
I popped mine and put the red paper crown on my head. “Beautiful, right?”
“Gorgeous.” Saoirse’s crown was blue.
“I like this so much. Thank you.” Dusty put on his yellow crown.
Crowns on, we passed around the food.
“Oh, I need some of this.” Hale immediately pulled the soup to him and started ladling it into his bowl.
There were all sorts of sauces and toppings on the table, too,including radishes, diced onion, sliced limes, chopped green stuff, and more of that white cheese.
“Which one do you want to try first?” Carlos put three tamales on his plate. “The cheese and poblano peppers, and the pork are my favorite.”
“I’ll try chicken.” I liked chicken enchiladas, so a chicken tamale would probably be a good place to start.
He put one on my plate. I watched him as he unwrapped them, setting the wrappings on the side of his plate.
“This is mild.” Carlos put some green sauce on my plate, then added red sauce to his plate.
I passed on the beans, but I took some rice, enchiladas, and some soup. Watching Carlos, I added some of the toppings to my soup.
Taking a bite of the tamale, I nodded. “I like them.”
“Carlos’ mamá makes the best tamales. Even my moms will admit that.” Dusty took another.
“And your mom makes the best enchiladas?” I asked, taking a bite of the chicken. It was a little spicy for me, but not so much that I couldn’t enjoy it. I had a bite of rice.
Dusty grinned. “That is a loaded question. Carlos’ mom’s enchiladas are really good, too. They just make them differently.”
“Noted.” I nodded, finishing off my tamale.
“Fucking shit, this is just what I needed.” Hale stuffed half a tamale in his mouth as he filled his bowl with more soup.
“The soup is delicious, Carlos,” Saoirse said.
“Try an enchilada? Please?” Dusty coaxed. “You haven’t had them or tamales?”
“I will. I like enchiladas. I just wanted to start with soup,” she replied, putting an enchilada on her plate and reaching for the tamales.
Dusty’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve had enchiladas, but not tacos?”
I snorted. “You’ve never had a taco? What do you mean? I’m on your regular menu.”
Carlos laughed. “Good one.”
“I think he means the other food. Um, I haven’t tried tamales, either.” She finished putting one on her plate.
As we ate, we read off our jokes, then chatted about our plans for the day. There’d been a lot of food, and I was surprised at how little was left. But then Hale, Dusty, and Carlos atea lotof tamales.
We cleaned up and sat by the tree, the fire crackling. I realized there were stockings with everyone’s names on it.
“Saoirse, did you bring them?” I asked.
“I did,” Dusty said. “They’re basic, but it’s Christmas, so we should have stockings. My sister put everyone’s names on them.”
