Luminarias

Merry Christmas from New Mexico!

There's a line in New Mexico that says you know you are from New Mexico when your Christmas decorations include 500 paper bags and candles, and a half ton of sand.

Luminarias (photo from New Mexico Photo.com) light the way to your home for the Christ child. Yes, they are paper bags, but they really are beautiful when they are all lit.

Quincy and Jacob helped the high school band set up about 60,000 luminarias this holiday season. Setting these up is a real reminder of the wonderful community we live in. The band kids work from early morning to dark for days to make this happen, and people are kind with holiday goodies when you arrive to set up their luminarias.

Thanks to all who supported the band. If you live in the area and we missed you this year, we will get you next year!

Moon over Onions

This moon rose over the Mesilla Valley Sunday after we all helped Quincy's band set up luminarias, New Mexican Christmas decorations. (Photo by Quincy.)

As we pulled off the road by this onion field to take this picture, another car also stopped. People in New Mexico always seem to travel with their cameras to capture moments like these.

This is the end of a time for us, as the last year with both kids at home. Although Christmas will be spent together for some time, this is the final year of parenting two kids at home.

As they move on, we keep the home fires burning.

Could Willamette be the one?

Jacob got his first fat envelope from an admissions office yesterday. Willamette University [http://www.willamette.edu/] promised Jake a response in under three weeks, and they kept their word.

This will be a busy winter for all: Mel and Stu have to navigate financial aid forms, Jake has a final decision to make, and Quincy plans to have contractors start busting down extraneous walls for the new suite she is planning with the empty room next door. She has graciously offered Jacob the guest room while he is in town...

Bridge to Talavera

Stu and I were the third car across the new bridge this morning!

(In Southern New Mexico, you take your excitement where it comes...)

This bridge has been years in coming. When we first moved to Talavera, 3.1 miles of the road from town was dirt. Back then, fewer people were willing to drive to Talavera, and our area grew slowly.

A couple years before the millenium, the road was paved, bringing an explosion of development to our area.

As the area developed, runoff from big desert storms increased flow down the main arroyo that leads into town. The road was not designed to handle the flow, and the road regularly washed out where the arroyo crossed. We watched for years as the county graded, rip-rapped, regraded, repaved, and re-rip-rapped the area, only to have the next storm again wash it all away, leaving exposed utilities and dramatic cut banks by the side of the road.

So no more speculating on the extent of the damage each storm brings as we drive into town. Unless, of course, Mother Nature again figures out how to best the efforts of the humans who keep trying to win... Will let you know!

Beer Blog

I have been trying to convince Stu that he needs a beer blog.

Stu's knowledge of beer is encyclopedia. He began teaching "Brewing Science and Society" a few years back, and rarely has a seat gone empty in his class since. Hundreds of students who never thought they'd ever take a beer class can now explain the difference between a porter and a pale ale.

In addition to knowling a lot about beer, he brews really good beer! He has brewed ales, lagers, stout, porters, pilsners, bocks, fruit beers, wits, and too many more to name.

His most recent brew was chicha (http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/751499), a corn based brew we tased for the first time in Peru in the summer of 2006. If you are in the neighborhood, stop in and have a glass.

Somewhere that is not here...

Question parents of high school seniors are asked most often: Where is the kiddo looking to go for college?

Jake is applying to Willamette in Oregon, Carleton and Macalester in Minnesota, Clark in Massachusetts, and Swarthmore in Pennsylvania. Back-up schools are UNM in Albuquerque and perhaps some WUE school.

What is a WUE school? Check out http://www.collegiateacademy.net/counseling/4_select/select_wue.htm
Especially if you live in the western US.

Widget

Newest member of the household...

She arrived in early August, barely big enough to cover the palm of my hand. She lost a tussle with the car of a co-worker and spent her first couple weeks at our home recovering from a broken pelvis.

Amazingly enough, she had few lasting effects, although she is unusually fond of curling up on laps and purrs louder than any kitten I have ever known. She rules the roost, including the two 60-pound dogs.