Grandmother

We are spending time with Grandmother (Jo's Mom) as she is ill in the hospital. Not any change this morning 12/19/07. Out plans now are to return this afternoon to Capitan and prepare for the Grand-children coming in on Friday night. Our first Christmas with the grandkids at our house, and we are excited to see them!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Dinner for Capitan

Ed decided a couple of weeks ago that we needed to serve the community of Capitan at Christmas, so even though our church is teeny, we took it on. Ed got monetary donations from banks and local businesses and lots of food donated as well, so today we served a turkey dinner with all the trimmings to anyone who showed up. Capitan Schools let us use their cafeteria. We think we served about 200 people, but had enough food for twice that many! Here we are getting everything cooked and ready to go.

We even had entertainment. Cindy had a few of her music students
play Christmas carols for all the diners. Friends Linda Green, Ann Beevers, and Liz Holfackett help serve.Everyone enjoyed just getting together with
people they hadn't seen in awhile.

Christmas in Old Town Albuquerque

Ed had a State School Board meeting in Albuquerque on Friday & Saturday, so we enjoyed the pre-holiday season in the city. Friday night we went to the Nob Hill Shop & Stroll where Central Avenue was closed to traffic & all the shops stayed open late. There were lots of street performers (but I didn't have my camera) and lots of families of all ages. We ate at a tapas bar and enjoyed the time.

On Saturday night we went to the Old Town Plaza for the official lighting of the Christmas tree. Here are some pictures. A kids choir singing Christmas songs on the Plaza

Marimba street performers

Lots of policemen on horses and bicycles

After the tree lighting we went to a fondue restaurant on the Plaza and "fondid" for dinner!

Grampa the Shepherd

Grampa in the shepherd costume I made this weekend. He is the shepherd at the manger in Walk Through Bethlehem at Angus Nazarene Church. This is a really big event that is in its third season and is one of the biggest attractions for this area. I will try to post some pictures of it next weekend.

It's Starting to Feel a lot like Christmas!

We went to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving and managed to do our part to support Black Friday.

It snowed all over NM while we were there, so that really put us in the Christmas spirit. The most fun part, of course, was coming home and wrapping all the presents to put under the tree. Sorry, Stephanie & Meaghan--seems like most of the presents are for Jackson & Emily! Those grandbabies are definitely fun to shop for!

We also started decorating the house (inside only for now--outside coming soon).

Ok, I'm happy now

It finally (!) got cold today, so we have our first fire of the season. Maybe now it'll begin to feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas are on the way.

Breathing again

Our ALPHA Lay Leader Jamie

Got to have a talent show at a retreat!!

Some of the group at meal time

Here we are in front of the Dining Hall

We are about to get our breath after a very busy weekend. Most of you know about the Mountain Top Experience in September, where many churches in Lincoln County gathered for a weekend of outreach and praise. To follow that up we began a program called ALPHA Course teaching new Christians about Jesus and the Bible. Lessons like "Who is Jesus" and "Why did he die?". This is a weekly meeting on Wednesday evenings with a light meal then a video and discussion about the subject material. The program was started in Brighton England. You can read more at www.alphausa.org . Anyway a weekend retreat is scheduled in the middle of the 15 weeks for a getaway to focus on the Holy Spirit (who he is and what he does and how to be filled). That is what we were up to this past weekend, Friday night through Sunday at noon. The Priest at Holy Mount Episcopal in Ruidoso was going to help me with the weekend, then he decided to resign the second week of ALPHA. It was a very busy schedule and school board stuff (board meeting Thursday and bond presentation Saturday morning) did not reduce the schedule.

No matter GOD had a very successful weekend!!
The folks on the retreat went with the flow, even the lay leader who was frantic the week before. The Lord showed up and dramatically changed some lives.

The retreat was at Fort Lone Tree where Jo and I had been 15 years ago. Lots of memories while we were out there.

Anyway that was the busiest part of our weekend, along with "Baby dedication" at the Church and covered dish fellowship at the Church on Sunday, so Jo and I split up for Sunday morning.

Look Who's in Our Backyard!

This morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw this buck just munching away at our grass/weeds. He had jumped our fence and was right up next to the house. The scary thing was that Nutmeg, our little nearly deaf and nearly blind dog was wandering around the yard, so I was afraid the big guy would hurt her. After she came in her doggy door, I crept around the side of the house to snap these shots. Next thing I knew, Nutmeg was back out barking at the deer (there were now 2)! Ohmygosh! The last picture is Nutmeg parked outside on "deer patrol." Whew! I feel much safer now.

November ?

One of the main reasons I created this blog was for these pictures. It is amazing to me that the red tree and the green tree in the photos are both Berford Pear trees. The red one has been red for almost a month now. It is just 8 feet away from the green one. The small green tree in the second picture is just now beginning to turn and it is between the other two.

Yes it is fall, but I think even the trees are confused. We have had record high temps for the past several days and no moisture. Enjoy your weekend, we have a full plate this weekend with ALPHA and a big day at the Church Sunday (baby dedication).

Getting Started

We have arrived in the world of blog. After enjying the blog information from our children and mostly from our grand-children, I (grampa) decided it was time to get on the web with our own site. Don't expect many pictures or videos as Nana Jo is camera shy. We will occasionally bring you up to date with information from Capitan and our little corner of the world.