Here we go!

Time to play catch-up with the blog. I've been a very bad blogger of late, so I'll make up for it with a PLETHORA of pictures. That always works. :-)

I last blogged on Tuesday of last week... Don't remember Wednesday. Don't remember Thursday. Don't remember Friday. But on one of those nights we went into town to check out the River of Lights. We were pretty impressed! It was fun, but a mite chilly. Which makes it all the more fun, of course. :-)

This first picture is of a giant snowman village that was VERY cool. And the picture actually turned out okay through the glass!

This was one of the coolest, I thought. Old trucks are neat anyway, but especially neat lit up.
They had TONS of displays. Since it was located at the botanical gardens, they had a whole bunch of flowery things.




Joe thought the scorpion was COOL.



This isn't from the River of Lights, of course, but... better, Mom & Em???
Okay, although Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are lost forever, I do remember Saturday! It was the day we got the house all cleaned up, packed some clothes, and drove to Alamogordo--stopping at that soda fountain James loves in Carrizozo, of course. We were going to make a church visit there last month, but it didn't work out. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip and when we got there we stumbled into a really, really bad situation and wondered if we were supposed to be there at all! But in the end, we could see how God really worked things out and orchestrated this trip at the exact time (down to the minute, perhaps) that it was needed. We had a really, really good service on Sunday full of prayer and bearing one another's burdens and worshiping and praising God and praying some more. It was exactly what was needed and you could feel the Lord really meeting the needs. He is so good and so faithful and always right on time. We are always so blessed when we go to Alamogordo--the people there are simply AMAZING and so very faithful. I am just sooooooooooooo thankful for The Church of God! I'm always amazed at the kinship we feel with one another and the privilege of truly feeling each other's joys and sorrows, rejoicing in the good times and bearing the burdens in the bad times. Anyway, it was GREAT to be there and we left feeling so convinced that God had planned this trip for us.

We had a nice time of fellowship and enjoyed some pizza with the folks after service, then headed over to Hatch to join them for their Christmas service.

We passed this SO COOL dog on the way there. I just love him!!! Any dog who can practically fill up the back of a truck is just plain cool. :-)

We got to Hatch and stopped by the Soto's house/business to see if we could pick up some salsa. We had run out a few weeks ago and the turkey tacos just aren't the same without them. :-) Anyway, Tayde was gracious enough to sell us some salsa AND invite us to stay until church time. How nice!

The service was GREAT. We sang a few songs, then Tayde took over had the kids come up and recite some verses and sing some songs. So cute!

After that, they put on their Christmas play. It was soooooooooo great!!!!! Unfortunately it was in Spanish and both of our interpreters were IN the play and couldn't help us out. Ha! It really didn't matter--we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so cute and we got the basic gist of it ("don't forget the TRUE meaning of Christmas")--and I thought the costumes were FANTASTIC!
Jesus was an angel... one who was a wee bit disheveled!
Look at these costumes!!! Abbie (that's right, isn't it?!) was a GREAT sheep--and Adrian was a terrific lion. I was struggling to figure out why there was a lion in the nativity scene, but somebody explained that there were supposed to be two sheep... one of them mysteriously disappeared and the lion was "taking its place." Ha!

Things really perked up when Tayde showed up and pulled her gun on everybody! I really should have had her explain more of it to me afterwards--I still don't "get" that part! Nonetheless, it was funny! And she looked terrific, didn't she?! Ha! I love it! David was a great king, too. :-)
And Belen was one of the very best Santa's I have EVER seen!!! SO FUN! :-)
We made it home on Monday. Don't remember anything else about Monday.

Don't remember Tuesday. Wait... that was just yesterday, right? Surely I can remember something. Hhmmm... Laundry. School. Hmm. Oh, well!

We did get a few packages in the mail this week. Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too many presents from Pennsylvania, I assure you. We also got this from the VanDeventers...

Isn't that pretty??? It's so VanDeventer-ish. :-) These boxes were filled with all manner of tasty chocolates from Harry & David. YUM!

Don't know when this was taken, but Sam decided to make some glasses for himself so he could look like his Dad...

Last night we loaded up and headed into town. I had suggested tuna casserole for dinner and within minutes James said, "Hey... how 'bout we go check out the Bugg Lights tonight--it's probably going to be our only chance.......... and we could grab some dinner while we're there." All inspired by the idea of tuna casserole, no doubt. Ha! Anyway, the Bugg Lights are a tradition that's been going on for over 30 years. Apparently an old couple by the name of Bugg (how sad!) really got into decorating their yard for Christmas. They did it for all those years, but finally got too old to be able to do it. So a nearby school volunteered to take it over and now they set it up there at the school.

Sam has a real thing for nutcrackers, so he was thrilled to find this one!
There were a whole bunch of lighted displays--what the Bugg Lights is really all about. It's kind of a pity though. If you saw all this stuff in somebody's yard you would think, "WOW! This is so amazing!" But since it's set up at a school for everybody to walk through it somehow doesn't seem as impressive or something! Anyway, here's a California Raisin riding his board... ironing board, that is. Ha!
ONLY in New Mexico would you find Santa with a flock of aliens.


Oh, I forgot to mention! After the Christmas service in Hatch they had a big Christmas dinner over at the Banueloses restaurant. It was so, so, so good but I ate so, so, so much! The green tamales were HOT, but so very good. We had a great time fellowshipping, then before we left they gave each of the kids (and there were a BUNCH of kids there) a present! I guess they've been having dinners to raise money to buy all the gifts with. Anyway, all three of our kids loved their presents. Joe got a set of army guys and weapons--little miniatures. Sam got a train that looked pretty cheap and lame... but once you put batteries in it it makes a TON of noise and lights up and chug-a-lugs across the room until it runs into something, then redirects itself and keeps going. Sam LOVES it, of course. And Katie got this set of phones that has a really, really long cord connecting them--and you can actually talk through them! All three kids think it's fantastic. Here's a picture Sam in the dining room next to the stereo (Katie was in her closet with the other phone), singing along to the Christmas music for Kate.
After devotions and school this morning the day was spent almost entirely in the kitchen. Here is this year's crop of Christmas cookies...

Here are some of Katie's...
The "Noel, Leon" is sort of a family thing... from one of our "favorite" songs. Ha!
And one of Joe's... This was part of a train and he decided to put a wreath on it. I was pretty impressed!
And, of course, Sam's. Sam gets a little sprinkle happy!!!
Along with dinner tonight (baco's... another family thing!) I also made a peach crisp, a pumpkin roll, and clam chowder for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow--soup is always better the second day, you know. :-) We had devotions and put the kids to bed in the living room tonight. We always try to let them sleep in the room with the tree and all the lights one night, so tonight is the night! Sam fell asleep during devotions again (?!), but Katie and Joe were awake with big eyes for a long, long time!
They're all goners now though. James and I went to the den and put on a Christmas movie--and I was able to get all of the ironing done. Wa-Hoo! So much accomplished today! A few more things that must be done in the morning, and then the fun really begins! I will be posting more pictures tomorrow night... and they'll be GREAT ones! :-)