Making tamales

I swear I'm going to try this again, one of these days. I have all or most of the ingredients including masa harina, corn husks, and my own rendered lard, though not the fillings. I plan to try them with lard and with whatever people tend to use now. As I remember, what went wrong the first time, years ago, was that the filling was too spare, and the masa somehow too hard. I find that true with commercial tamales too, so I don't feel so all alone.

Putting in enough filling seems easy enough, and I did have a recipe a while ago that mentioned how to keep the masa from being too hardened (ah, I see the article has a comment mentioning aeration for the masa).

This is what got me thinking about this - CHOW's article on tamales for the holidays: http://www.chow.com/food-news/55368/tamales-for-the-holidays/?tag=nl.e350
Knowing myself, I'd probably try making these over two days, or maybe more if I would do two kinds.

Anyone else like tamales or interested in making them themselves?
Have favorite recipes?