Tues, Dec 31

We headed back to the Caverns for an official tour.  It was very enjoyable.  We went to a different area.  It was pretty amazing.  I have included only a few more pictures.  

This is called the frustrated lovers because they aren't quite touching.

 In one area they had blasted a tunnel to improve the route for touring 80 years ago.  The little stalactites have formed in those 80 years.  They are less than a inch.

We left Carlsbad a little after noon.  Stopped for gas in Roswell.  I got a few more alien shots.

Pretty close to a 5 hour drive home.  We had about an hour to get ready for company and make the soup.  I had 2 pots going..  One for soup and one to cook the boudzas.  Worked out pretty well. Steve and Jennifer came and then 3 volunteers who live here joined us.  It was fun. We had plenty.  

I have to be up at 4 am to get Nathan to the airport.  We don't leave until early afternoon.  It is hard to believe that our time here is almost over.  2014 here we come.  

Monday, Dec 30

We had an "early" start this morning.  We were having breakfast by 7:15 am so we could get to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  One dilemma we had is that we SHOULD have bought tickets at least 2 days ago to make reservations for one of the tours. But since we had not done that we wanted to get there early to see if could get stand-by tickets.  We got to the Caverns and all the tours were full.  So we bought tickets for a Tuesday morning tour.  Then we headed off on a self-guided walking tour that went to the areas which we open to the public.  It took an hour to get down to the main area and then a 1 1/2 hour tour in the Big Cavern.

omewhere along the line my camera battery died.  The other battery is currently still being charged back in Albuquerque.  Darn.  I had to switch to my phone.  It did a fairly good job.

Then we went home.  Nathan and Rebecca made chocolate mug cakes.  That was fun exercise in creative cooking.  We did bring Rebecca's toaster oven with us to make them and we had all the ingredients.

We relaxed a bit while George tried to repair our rental car.  I forgot to mention than on our drive down to Carlsbad when it was late on Sunday, George ran over a dead dear in the road.  There was some damage to the vehicle and a certain amount of information you do not want to know.  Anyway today he was trying to repair a part of the bumper that was a little damaged.  When that was done it was time for supper.  We went up the road to a pizza place.  Nothing to write home about but it was filling.  After supper we looked at some pictures of George's mom when she was growing up.  

Sunday Dec 29

This morning we went to Rebecca's church.  It is a friendly church.  People seem to know who Rebecca is.  At least they great her by name.  That is nice.

Then pet care - this was our last time of doing that.  This is Peaches.

Home for lunch.  Nathan had not gone to church so he had lunch on the table for us.  We got on the road soon after that.  We drove to see the Very Large Array (I am sorry to say I had never heard of it)  It is a huge radio telescope.  27 antenna which have been in a ton of movies like Contact with Jodie Foster.  We saw a movie about it and then walked around on a self guided tour.  Very impressive.

 The sun was starting to go down as we left and we had a long way to go.

Supper in Roswell.  We ate at Tia Juana's.  

The token Alien in Roswell. 

We made it to Carlsbad about 10 pm.  Checked into the hotel - it is clean and will be ok but half the things in here are falling apart.  Kinda funny.  Oh well.  It is only for 2 nights.

Saturday, Dec 28

It seems to take us a bit to get organized in the morning.  Everyone gets up at different times.  But once we started moving we did not stop.  Rebecca and Nathan liked the Gravity Park so much they wanted to go back.  So George and I dropped them off.  We went and did the cat care, bought a few more groceries for our boudza meal and then we started a search to buy an ordinary round cookie cutter.  I needed it for the bouzas.  Who know that it would be such an impossible job.  We went to about 5 stores.  Finally it was time to get up to where Nathan and Rebecca were.  We went to the Bosque Brewery for lunch. Steve and Jennifer joined us.  I had a 1/2 caprese sandwich and a roasted onion/tomato soup.  Yummy but not particularly photogenic.  We then went on a walk in the Bosque (woods near the Rio Grande).  You can tell that Nathan is more used to cold temperatures.  

Then we tried 2 more stores, the second one I was successful.  Target was one of the 1st ones I had tried but this one had what I wanted.  So I got my cookie cutter.  We went home to start the boudza making process.

I brought my pasta maker.  Rebecca cut the circles and George and Nathan filled the circles.  We have 3 trays full in the freezer now.  So we are ready for New Year's Eve.  All we have to do is make a big pot of soup and heat the boudzas.

We just fixed sandwiches at home for dinner and then we went to the River of Lights at the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens.  http://riveroflights.org/ It was amazing.

I couldn't believe it.  So gorgeous.  Hard to decide which pictures to use.  We did not get home until 10pm.  So it was a busy day.  

Friday Dec 27

We had a slow start today.  We had a few odds and ends we were trying to take care of.  Like trying to get the UPS to deliver some of our Christmas packages before Jan 6!! May not happen. Oh well.  We finally headed out.  First stop was to a home where Rebecca is doing cat care for a friend.  She has been going twice a day to feed the kitty and make sure the Christmas lights are going on or off.  Then we went to Gravity Park.  What a blast that was.  The black squares are the trampolines.  I must say that it was harder than it looks.

It was very difficult to get pictures because with all the movement I could not get them to be in focus.  But some of my movies turned out.  I did not think that I would be able to do it for an hour but the time went by quickly. George went grocery shopping while we jumped.  None of us did the fancy flips that others were doing.  After the Gravity Park we did a few errands on our way home. Played a game of Cranium in the afternoon.  We did some of the initial stuff with making boudzas (though I hear that the correct spelling is bauzi.  Been spelling it wrong my whole life).  Then we went to the Taaj Palace for dinner.  It was good, not great but good. Pet care on our way home.  Played another game after dinner.  All in all a nice day.

"our" Christmas Dec 26

the luminarias were lit right outside our window last night

Nathan was feeling better after a good night sleep.  Christmas morning started around 7 am. Sharon, you may get a kick out of this - Nathan came down saying "Not a lot of zoo cats now".  Took me awhile.  I am just slow (notalotza zu katza zao - merry Christmas in Marathi).

We did our usual routine of stockings and then sticky buns.  I was alittle disappointed in the sticky buns.  I added some time due to the high altitude but not enough so they were underdone so then I cranked up the heat and added more time - and then they were burnt.  Oh well.  They tasted good but not very picture worthy.

Then we did gifts by the fire. It did not seem to warm up the place, though.  We relaxed a bit and then cleaned up before going to a nature park for a walk.

We went to see "Frozen"  which I really enjoyed and then we joined Steve and Jennifer for dinner at the Holy Cow.  I had a very good child's sized burger.  

Home to play a card game and then off to bed.  All in all a very nice Christmas day.  Rebecca got a nice gift from Patty.  

Christmas Day in Albuquerque

We left the house about 9:15 am.  Madeline gave us a ride to the MAX station.  We got to the airport by 10:30 am.  The only line was at Southwest but it moved fairly quickly.  Then we lucked out and got put in the new random line at security.  We did not have to remove shoes or coats, nor did we have to remove laptops and liquids.  So we zipped through that line.  So we had plenty of time to wait for our plane.  The flight was full but uneventful.  We rented a car and then drove to Rebecca's.  Nathan's trip was not so uneventful.  He ended out having a 5 hour delay in LAX.  He stopped at a restaurant for lunch.  But something did not settle right so he spent today being sick.

We went to my brother's for Christmas dinner.  There were 12 of us in all.

Rebecca and George playing with baby Avery

Steve's tradition is a Christmas umbrella complete with fake presents.  

My sweet/sour mustard sauce was a hit.  It survived the journey.  I am glad that Nathan felt up to joining us though he did not eat much.