December 2022 In This Issue Features Big Bend’s Indomitable Prickly Plant Life Ring In the Holidays With Tried-and-True Tejano Traditions You’ve Never Been to Dickens on the Strand? Bah! Humbug! Departments Editor’s Note A Coastal Carol My Hometown Find Exotic Animals and Hill Country Culture in the No-Stoplight Town of Harper Open Road A Long Goodbye to Texas Speaking of Texas Journalist and Podcaster Sam Sanders Connects the Dots of Culture and News Texana The Gault Site in Central Texas Reveals New Details About the Oldest North Americans Getaway With Its Healing Waters History, Mineral Wells Serves Up Relaxing Good Times Drive / Atlas Carvers From China Create Frozen Masterpieces at Galveston’s Ice Land Drive / Detour The Christmas Mountains Are the Gift That Keeps on Giving Drive / Made in Texas The Biggest Hit at the American Windmill Museum Is the Smallest Plates Las Ramblas Cocktail Lounge Brings Nightlife to Historic Downtown Brownsville Plates Historic Slaton Bakery Has Served Sweet Treats to the Panhandle for Nearly 100 Years Vintage The Tex-Mex Christmas Tradition of Tamales Daytripper It’s Fruitcake Season All Year Long in Corsicana Sightseer A Fresh Angle on Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park