A very Merry Christmas

Christmas. There's nothing like it. It seems to take so long to get here, and then when it does, it seems to go by so fast.

Rebeca and Jason arrived on Christmas Eve, after spending several days in Dallas visiting Jason's family. We were so happy to have them with us, and the dogs felt right at home again.

Even with as much planning as we thought we did, we still had to get out there with the masses on Christmas Eve and look for last-minute Christmas gifts. So, Guillermo, Rebeca and I went out and shopped a little bit, and it was actually a lot of fun! We had Brian (Jason's brother) and Katrina spend the night with us on Christmas Eve and we were so happy to be able to have them here with us.

On Christmas morning, we opened one present, and then stopped for a while to get the turkey in the oven. When that was done, we went back to opening gifts. Guillermo was really excited about the seeds that Rebeca gave him. When he opened that gift, the two of them spent a lot of time looking over and discussing each seed. It was amazing to see banana seeds!!

 The dogs loved opening their gifts, too, and it was funny to see Duke so protective of his ball.

In the afternoon Amanda (Jason's sister)and her husband Dmitry stopped by for a visit with their 3 month old son David. How fun it was to talk with them and hold a little baby again!

 Shortly after that, more family started arriving. It was a nice warm day, so it was easy to spend time either indoors or outside. We had our Christmas dinner, opened presents, took a walk down the street, and then enjoyed coffee and dessert. After everyone left, Rebeca, Jason, Guillermo and I spent a relaxing evening cleaning up the kitchen, and then sitting around the tree just talking.

I have to say, it was a very Merry Christmas - one which we enjoyed very much! The only thing missing was that Fernando and Eva weren't here with us. That would have made the whole thing absolutely perfect. We are grateful that we at least had Rebeca and Jason with us. :-)

As I'm writing this, it's two days after Christmas and Rebeca and Jason left in the morning. They should just be about to arrive in Tucson. As is always the case, Guillermo and I feel a little lost and sad, but we still have excitement coming up, so that helps somewhat! Martina will be here in exactly one week, and Fernando will be here in 9 days!! So, now THAT is what we are looking forward to!!!

Happy New Year!!

The best time of the year

Oooh, we are excited and happy about Rebeca and Jason's arrival tomorrow!!

Of course, their arrival also means the Energumeno will be here too. Well, his malodorous pal has been anxiously waiting for him. This thoughtful pal has been fixing up the yard, digging as many holes as he can to impress his new found friend from the last visit. But most of all, he can't WAIT to share his unique scent with his very best friend again! And I'm sure the Energumeno feels the same way because it's almost one hundred percent certain that he will try to seek out and reconnect with his old buddy as soon as he can. Heaven help us all!

We raked all the leaves in the front yard the other day (spending practically all day doing that) and the yard looks so nice. So, I'd say we pretty much are ready for Christmas! The rooms are all ready for our family and guests, we've started some parts of the Christmas dinner, the presents are under the tree, (although Guillermo is in there right now wrapping presents!), the house looks lovely inside and out and there just is no doubt about it. This IS a most wonderful time of the year!

Rebeca's room to Guillermo's office to guest room

We have been really busy these past two days. Yesterday, we started the process of rearranging Rebeca's room (which is now Guillermo's office, but don't tell Rebeca that) :-)

Today, we moved the recliner out of our room and did some other little changes to FOUR rooms of our house. Rebeca's room (a.k.a. Guillermo's office) is now ready for Rebeca and Jason, and when they leave, the room becomes Martina's room a few days later.

We are so excited and happy about Rebeca and Jason coming for Christmas. That only leaves 2 other people that we are sad won't be with us. Fernando and Eva. But, we are extremely happy for them to be spending Christmas in Borneo. Fernando wrote us today and it sounds like the two of them are having a wonderful time. Here is some of what he had to say:

--We're in a town called Lahad Datu for tonight and I just thought I'd write now before we head off again. We'll be out of contact again for a few days, so for now I'll say both happy anniversary and merry christmas! We've been having a good time. Gunung Mulu was great, the caves were really impressive and we saw a few nice birds. So after Gunung Mulu we stayed one night in Kota Kinabalu again. From there we went to Kinabalu National Park for a night. It's at around 5000 feet elevation on the slope of Mount Kinabalu, so the weather was cool and cloudy and the forest was very pretty, a bit like Monteverde. From there we went to a place called Sepilok, which had an orangutan rehabilitation center where former pets or orphans live semi-wild and show up for daily feedings. It was good seeing them but a bit zoo-like, even if they were completely free to roam around. Yesterday we went to a "jungle camp" on the Kinabatangan river and spent one night. We saw four kinds of monkeys (proboscis, long-tailed macaque, pig-tailed macaque, silverey langur), tons of birds, and a few crocodles, snakes and lizards. No orangutans, gibbons, or elephants though, but it was still very cool. The wildlife spotting reminded me of cruising the rivers in the Amazon lodges, but I think we probably saw more here (especially for only one night). Lahad Datu is nothing special, we're just here over night so that we can catch transportation to the Danum Valley conservation area tomorrow. The forest and wildlife are supposed to be really good there -- hoping for some gibbons and orangutans and a few more birds. We'll be there for two nights, then leave on Christmas day for the coastal town of Semporna. I'll probably write again from there. Hope all is well, and say hi to Rebeca for me whenever she comes.--

So, that's the latest from here. Christmas always brings exciting things and we've got quite a lot of excitement coming up!

31 years!!

Today Guillermo and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. We spent a good day; although the weather was cold and wet, we were warm and happy thinking of our day so many years ago. We are so happy we met each other, and Rebeca and Fernando added immeasurable joy to those years!

We were going to celebrate with a nice dinner at Cha-Cha's Mexican Restaurant, but we ended up pulling out of their parking lot and driving over to Red Lobster. For the occasion, that turned out to be a much better choice. Red Lobster was a place that we used to take Rebeca and Fernando quite often when they were little. So, we had an enjoyable evening reminiscing about our wedding day, and also reliving the memories of all the dinners we had there with the kids.

About our trip yesterday to Fredericksburg, that also was very enjoyable. The weather was very cold, there was ice in the fountains in Fredericksburg, but we thought the weather felt great. We did some Christmas shopping, ate German food for lunch, and then took the back roads back to San Antonio. Something we have always loved doing. We had a VERY nice day that day also.

We are off for a while!

Fernando and Eva are now in Borneo, they arrived in Kota Kinabalu on Friday, and this weekend are visiting Gunung Mulu National Park. Rebeca will be here in a little over a week!!! :-)

Guillermo and I are planning to go back to the hill country on Tuesday, since we are off now until mid-January. We are going to Fredericksburg this time, have some good German food for lunch, and take in a few of their neat little shops. And if we find some neat little place, we may even spend the night up there!! We were thinking Tuesday was going to be cold and rainy (which is what we want), but now the forecast is for the day to be warmer, with sun. Last year, when we went, it was cold and rainy, and sitting in the German restaurant, looking out the window at the fine mist, (which almost looked like snow!) it sure seemed (and felt) like we were in Leipzig or some place like that. My mother went with us last year, and she hasn't decided yet whether she will go again this year. We hope she does!

All the Christmas decorations are finally up. It took way longer this year for some reason. Here are some pictures of our tree and little village. I tried to take pictures without the flash, but they came out too blurry. The one of the tree without the flash was the "least blurry" one, but it's still a little fuzzy.

Two margaritas and white pumpkin

Quite a busy day today!! In the morning, I finally set up the Christmas tree.

For lunch, I met with my former school colleagues at Pericos Restaurant. We sure had a wonderful time. As we all sat down at our table, I asked the group if anyone was going to get a margarita, or was it too early in the day. Someone said, "I'll have one if YOU have one". Then someone else chimed in, "To show my support, I'll have one, too". That went on and on, with almost everyone getting a margarita. Later in the lunch, a second round of margaritas was had, "just to show true support". It was hilarious, and we all had a great time. But I did wonder if there was some young person there in the restaurant making a comment to her parents along the line of: "Must be teachers". Rebeca (and probably even Fernando) knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about there. ;-)

When I got home, I made two pies out of a white pumpkin. We had no idea how that would be, but it was something we just wanted to try, to see how it would turn out, and it was absolutely delicious!

What a nice surprise!!

Should have posted this yesterday, because it happened Friday, but better late than never.
I had to work a full day yesterday in Accounts Payable, and all morning I was wondering what Guillermo and I would have for lunch, since we didn't have all that much "lunch stuff" on hand. I decided we could at least have some soup, the rest of the chicken wings, tomato, carrots and the rest of the cranberry pie. Sounded good enough. So, at 12, I start heading out of the building. Looking through the glass windows, I could see a truck that looked like ours. But I figured it was just a coincidence, someone has a truck just like ours. I step outside and start walking down the steps, taking a quick glance at the truck and I see Guillermo sitting inside of it, just waiting for me!!! I stopped and just looked at him in disbelief, wondering what was going on. He rolls down the window and says he was thinking we could go get some lunch somewhere. I could not have been more surprised, and more grateful to him for thinking of doing this. He suggested going to Bill Miller's, like we did several times back when I first started in AP. We decided, after all, to go ahead and have lunch at home, but how nice it was to have him meet me, drive me home and then drive me back to work. I will NEVER forget how surprised and happy I was to see him waiting there for me. Hugs and kisses to him!!