Christmas in Tucson

We don't have snow, but we've got ho, ho, ho

We haven’t spent Christmas in Tucson in ages, but this time, just like a crime, we had desire, opportunity and a target. Our La Jolla/LA Beisers had decided to rent a house in Tucson, and then like lemmings, 12 other family members followed suit. Four from Omaha, four from Alameda, CA, and our four representing Bethesda, Brooklyn, and Berkeley. Suddenly we had a Beiser Bundle of 18 visitors joining the other 12 on the ground. 

Beiser bunch

I married into a big family, quite a treat for an only child, and I married into a fun family. And when they are all together, they laugh and laugh. In annus horribile 2020, we lost Frank Beiser who was the King of Family Fun. We had not all been together since he died, and we toasted him, and donned animal noses in his honor. He had sent animal noses for a Tucson Christmas in 1986 and this year we did it again with a whole new generation that keeps his spirit alive. 

Beaked Beiser

Family with noses, El Corral Steakhouse

Christmas Eve

Peter banging out Silent Night

Franky designed T-shirts for everyone

The family is disparate—vegetarians and vegans and game hunters, Gen Xers and Boomers, Buddhist priests and ranchers, artists and musicians, physical therapists and insurance guys. But put us all together and we have no differences, we are bonded and united. We can drink beer around a fire pit, play horseshoes, we can hike mountains, and we can meditate. 

Sunset at the Dolan's party

Tucson shines in December. We have been coming in spring and summer for so many years, I’d forgotten the little desert chill in the mornings that rapidly burns off with the sun. Jacket in the morning, t-shirt in the afternoon. 

Loved our hacienda

Boys took over cooking

We rented a large hacienda through VRBO in a transitional neighborhood called Jefferson Park. It was huge and beautiful, spacious, comfortable, and had a fully outfitted gourmet island kitchen. All praise to this rental—usually the photos make the property look bigger than it is, this house was bigger than the photos! The owners provided a Christmas tree and ornaments, and I brought stockings ensuring us an “I’ll Pretend I’m Home for Christmas” extravaganza. 

Finger Rock

Tucson is a land of contradictions. We have the beautiful and the ugly. In fact the drive in from the airport on the Benson Highway is enough to make you want to turn back. Ancient sad motels like The Owl  Lodge, the trailer parks, businesses out of business, and ruins. All glaringly exposed by the sun. But head north and east and you are in a land of astounding beauty. 

The Catalinas rock

Tucson is in a valley, surrounded by four mountain ranges, Catalinas, Rincons, Tucson mountains, and Santa Ritas. But the star of the show is the Catalinas, they make all the other mountain ranges look like side shows. The Catalinas are the big and bold J Zee and Beyonce of mountains, you can’t take your eyes off of them, they reign and they rule. And they are due north. Tucson is like living inside of a compass. You always know your direction, which is helpful to a space-challenged individual like myself. 

Sunrise from the hacienda balcony

Tucson has rich and poor, highs and lows, you can be sweltering on the desert floor, and while people are skiing on the nearby 9000 foot Mt. Lemmon. Tucson has droughts and flooding. Tucson has coyotes and kitty cats. Tucson has magnificent sunsets whose brilliant coral and salmon and tangerine colors relieve the day of its earth tones. Tucson sunrises make every day look full of hope. And Tucson after dark turns into a public observatory where you can see every star. 

Many would say Tucson has the best winter weather, no rain to ruin your plans, no clouds to dampen your spirits. Average high in January, 66 degrees;  in February, 70 degrees. Tucson weather is like cooking bacon, it starts out crisp in the winter, gets crispy in the spring, crispiest in the summer, and if you aren’t careful it burns in June. There are two ways to beat the Tucson heat. You can leave. You can stay inside. Really what’s so different about that than a New England winter? 

Saguaro cacti Pima Canyon

Then there are those forests of saguaro cacti that you will find nowhere outside of the Sonoran desert. When I used to work for the Tucson Film Commission, producers from New York would call and say “Is that where there are those cactus that look like telephone poles?” 

We hiked Pima Canyon, pretty easy and beautiful with shade and trees and water. We climbed Tumamoc Hill on Christmas day, a steady rise that makes you feel like you worked out even though it’s only 3 miles round trip; Sabino Canyon—we struck out onto the unpaved side of the canyon, the Phone Line Trail. Darr and I also hiked the Finger Rock Trail for a little closer look at the finger. I have decided that I am fine with hiking until it gets either 1) too hard, or 2) too scary, and both of these things tend to happen, oddly, the farther you walk up. I am not one for narrow ledges and sharp precipices. But my boys are like goats, their legs constitute more than half of their bodies. 

Tumamoc Hill

Tortilla break in Sabino Canyon

Tucson has the best Mexican food in the country.  Franky held up a flour tortilla and mused, “why can you only get these here…why is this only place that gets these right?” Indeed, we had to buy dozens of flour tortillas because they are thin and floury, with just enough salt, and, of course, what food isn’t enhanced by lard? Eating salsa and chips in Tucson activates some sort of pleasure center in my brain. It’s as if the peppers burn and scrape out the toxins and confer a feeling of well-being. Hit all of our favorites: Micha’s (thrice), El Minuto, white cheese tostada continues to dominate the “cheese crisp” race; Crossroads (only because Micha's was closed, but good!), and the big surprise because it was always on our B-list, Casa Molina, which the boys declared numero uno in salsa and tortillas. We had eliminated Rosa’s after a bad experience in July, but who doesn’t deserve a second chance, and it earned back our love. Vegan favorites, I can’t believe I am saying this but on behalf of the healthy sons, we sought these out; Tanias 33 (zero atmosphere but great burros), Tumerico all vegan the real deal; and Zemam’s Too, great Ethiopian. We had non-Mex food at Prep and Pastry (new to us), Blue Willow (been there forever) and Ghini’s French Caffe, At Presta Coffee at the Mercado San Augustin I had a “campfire latte” (maple syrup, smoked sea salt, cayenne pepper, chipotle, nutmeg and cinnamon) which burned my mouth, to my delight. 

Tucson "garden"

I’ve had an up and down relationship with Tucson. Growing up there I came to hate all the boring predictably good weather, I preferred beach to desert, rain and snow to drought. I couldn’t wait to leave in my 20’s. But I always feel myself pulled back like the magnetic wand on a Wooly Willy toy. And on our last night, on New Year’s Eve itself, Tucson cosmically wowed us all with a double rainbow. As if to say, “Hey, don’t you love me now?”

Tucson: Take that!