Still Here

Bella has shamed me into taking up pen, so to speak, and reinvigorating my blog. We had a wonderful time in Santa Fe. It was a week of seeing sights, eating great food and taking in new experiences. Some of all these are shown below. I'll try and do it in several posts. This first one is from the time Nancy and I arrived through Saturday, July 4.




The first day (Thursday) Nancy and I took a 10,000 to 11,000 foot hike in the Santa Fe National Forest. This is a (unclear) picture of Santa Fe taken while on our hike. The trail was easy but constantly up.










This is a picture of a gorgeous spruce forest that covered I don't know how many acres that we walked in on the hike.












The next day (Friday) we traveled to 3 small towns to look at art galleries and Native American jewelry and art works. Here's a picture of a Christ statue outside of a (the) church in one of the small towns we visited.


And a cactus that we saw along the way. There actually weren't that many cacti out there but some of the ones that were there looked deadly like this one. Along the way we visited mucho art galleries that displayed all kinds of art. Apparently Santa Fe and the surrounding area sells more art than anywhere else in the USA except for New York City.




Saturday, July 4, Polly, Mark, Isabella,Grace, Sara, Wes and Ella all arrived in the afternoon. We were able to get into the house in the morning and do some shopping so things were at least partially settled when they got there. We had a great view of the mountains and just a short walk to downtown Santa Fe. Here's the view:



Once everyone arrived they lost no time in settling in. this is a gathering in the kitchen;


Here's a couple of pictures of our outdoor table where we ate most of our dinners.















Night finally came and with it fireworks. We could see some of the town fireworks but decided not to go out to see the official Santa Fe ones. We did, however have our own:















To be honest, Ella was tired and went to bed before the sparklers got started so we had some just for her the next evening.

That ended the fourth for us. Everyone was somewhat tired from traveling and the time change and went to bed relatively early. More about the week later.

Christmas and a Birthday

Has it been a month? I guess so although it doesn't seem it to me. Maybe the holidays just got me all mixed up. They certainly didn't get my blog done. Anyway, Nancy and Jim arrived unexpectedly on my birthday to help me celebrate. A great and welcome surprise. Although they only stayed for a day we had a good time visiting and going out to dinner. Margot Jeff and Heather arrived the Sunday before Christmas. Again, much fun and conversation (I actually think they came to see mom but condescended to stay with us). The first job was to trim the Christmas tree. It's the first time we used an artificial tree. It looked a little scrawny before the decorations got put up on it. It still looked a little bleak but not too bad. I think we'll use it again next year. If only I could figure out a way to fold the decorations up on the tree like the lights are done, we'd be all set.
Next came the serious work. this included:





Nancy making Christmas cookies,







Jeff playing Sudoku














and Margot and Heather cooking.

Heather got into it and decided to make some biscuits for Christmas. We used an old family recipe and she turned out the dough and kneaded it.

Then she formed the biscuits and baked them. They were delicious.



After that she decided a little relaxation was in order and went to work on a puzzle.


We all had Christmas eve dinner at mom's place (we brought it all in). More or less a traditional Christmas Eve with dinner, reading the two Christmas stories and, of course, the wonderful singing that the Hawkinses are so well know for.














Then on Christmas day we opened presents. Very creative! We'd drawn names and everyone worked on their present so it wasn't a total surprise but the actual implementation was.



The next day Sara Wes and Ella arrived and we had a mini Christmas all over again.

Don't know how I managed but somehow Wes never got in my pictures. And he was spending time with Ella which is what I was generally aiming my camera at. Next time Wes.



Heather gave Grace a dancing lesson. She was a very apt student.












The next day Margot, Jeff and Heather had to leave.


We were sorry to see them go but we still had Sara, Wes and Ella to play with. The next morning Ella showed the rest of us how to eat a pancake.


All to soon they too had to leave but they left us with great memories and some gorgeous paperwhites.













After a quiet new years eve (we must be getting old as we were asleep before midnight) and some much needed work on local projects, we headed to Michigan to help Grace celebrate her third birthday. She was in good form and helped with the cooking.
















Nonna made her a great cake which I didn't capture because the camera battery went dead. I did take a picture of it on the phone camera but have yet to discover how to get the phone picture into this blog. Maybe next time. It was a spectacular birthday cake. Prior to the party Grace went with her dad, Isabella, Nonna and I to the tractor store. It turns out Grace loves to ride the tractors in the showroom. Here she and Isabella have found a tractor just their size and are trying it out on the showroom floor.

After their experience with the tractors in the showroom, they decided they wanted to really get going and take Isabella's jeep out for a spin (there was only about 6 inches of snow on the ground at the time). Here they are taking it for a spin on the walk that Mark just cleared.

Looks like fun huh? After a several hang ups in the snow they finally came back in with wide grins on both their faces. Cold but happy. Finally Grace got to open her presents of which she had many.


















The next day, after about 8 inches of snow fell, we headed home. the roads around Detroit were mushy but as we got further south the roads got clearer and were just about dry in Ohio. The trip took a little longer than usual but wasn't bad. We'd had a great time visiting with everybody and seeing Grace, Isabella, Polly and Mark. Too bad they live so far away.

Well this has gone on long enough. I'll save any political or technology comments for next time.