Lemon Oreos

It is the time of year when New Mexico is garnished with fresh cut pine boughs and lemon oreos.

In front of El Pinto

Traditional lemon oreos only show up on Christmas Eve and are used to light the way for the Christ Child to enter your home.  My husband likes to tease that they're just candles in bags.  Many places now use the plastic, plug-in variety to decorate with them longer into the Christmas season.

Lyn can't say luminarias and has called them lemon oreos for as long as I can remember.  The first time we remember her saying "lemon oreos" was the time we spent Christmas Eve in the long line of cars slowly creeping through one of the large graveyards in town which had been decorated with thousands of luminarias.  It was 1979 or 1980.  We only did that tour once.

When I was with Mom and Lyn last week, we went to dinner at El Pinto, a long-time family favorite.  The restaurant was covered in the luminarias and greenery.  It was lovely and Lyn was happy to pose for a picture.

We don't correct her pronunciation.  We kinda like that she calls the luminarias "lemon oreos."