A hundred dozen tamales were made on Christmas Eve every year in Vanessa’s home. She went to sleep to the sound of clanking pots as her mother cleaned up the aftermath to awake to a clean kitchen on Christmas morning. The sounds and smells of Christmas are the annual memories that visit us, slipping as invisible guests through the door. They reawaken the sense of belonging and celebrating loving and being loved.
It all started because Vanessa’s mother, Minerva, was from Mexico. “She moved to the United States to be with my father. But she missed her country, home and traditions. So she decided she was going to start making tamales and welcome others into her culture.”
Throughout Christmas Eve, friends and neighbors pour into Vanessa’s childhood home. “It was a tradition over the years,” Vanessa laughs, “It was like an open house.” People would show up invited or not, just knowing they were welcome at Minerva’s door. “My mother would say, ‘I'm always prepared for a little hungry traveler’,” Vanessa recalls.
The tradition continued for many, many years. Eventually, a crew of ladies would gather around the table and help make the tamales, talking, making tamales, talking more and making more tamales. It was a family affair for Vanessa’s family and so many others.
The girl from Mexico had indeed brought about a Christmas tradition to impact many. After moving from Port Arthur, her mother and father began again in Flower Mound with their new friends and church family. The joy of filling a need continued in yet another new home. “People would knock on my mom's door and say, ‘Hey Minerva, you got a cup of coffee?’”
Minerva was always cooking, feeding any and everyone who walked through her door and proclaimed they were hungry. “However you grow up, whatever your normal is, you just assume everyone lives like that. You don't realize until you get old it was a labor of love.” Minerva’s cooking, especially her tamales, was a labor of love for the next generation.
“After dinner, [we] always sat on the front porch at my uncle's house. That was so part of my family and the Mexican culture. That's how you build. That's when you would learn about your heritage, you would learn about your ancestors and then you would play with your cousins.”
This legacy of community is one that Vanessa clings to. It’s shaped the way she lives her own life as the owner of Chateau Realty and the Lakeside Village Realty Group. “People just want to be part of something special. I've come to realize [it] even more so, especially with Project Lakeside. It's the thing that everyone craves that they're not aware of [craving]. They want to know they have neighbors. And that's what we do.” Project Lakeside is yet another addition to the Lakeside Village community on Lake Grapevine. It adds villas to the mix to further the endeavor of creating (quite literally) a village and a sense of community. Lakeside Village is about creating community, through the simplicity of establishing all the things that allow culture and community to be created like homes and villas, parks and music, food and places to watch the sunset.
The sounds and smells of Christmas are the annual memories that visit us, slipping as invisible guests through the door. They reawaken the sense of belonging and celebrating loving and being loved.