Our grandson's here!

Little Scottston Joseph Field was born on December 23rd at 4:15pm.  He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19.4 inches long.

Is it our imagination or is he one of the cutest babies ever!  He's just a few hours old here.

Here's how the past few days had played out for us before his birth.

On Dec. 17, at Rebeca's doctor appointment, she was told that they would schedule a delivery for December 26, so we all had December 26th in mind.  We planned to drive to Tucson on Christmas day.  On the morning of December 23rd, we get a phone call from Rebeca at 8am!!  She told us they are admitting her to the hospital and that we should probably pack our stuff up and go ahead and start driving over there because he would probably be born later that day.  We had waited for this call for weeks and now that we had finally gotten it we just couldn't believe it.  It took us 2 hours to get everything fixed up at the house like we like it and to pack away our last minute stuff.  We pulled out of our driveway at around 10:10am and left San Antonio around 10:30am.
We only stopped once for lunch and gas in Ozona - a 15 minute stop - and then continued on our way.  We even said we wouldn't stop for dinner - that we would just eat whatever we had in the car and just keep on going.  But we did have to stop for gas in Las Cruces but that's all we did - bathroom break and get gas and keep on going.   By the time we were approaching Deming, it was already kind of dark and after that we drove pretty much in darkness.  Fortunately, the weather was perfect and there wasn't much traffic.  We pull into Tucson around 9:30pm and head straight to the hospital.  After finally figuring out which was the entrance to the hospital, we finally get in, sign in and make our way to the newborn wing.
Seeing little Scott for the first time was so unreal and beautiful.  He looked to us just beautiful and we couldn't wait to hold him.  We were so happy to hold him and be there with Rebeca and Jason and to know we were there on the day he was born.  Absolutely contented, we left the hospital a little while later since it was WAY after visiting hours (they made a special exception for us).  We drove to Rebeca's house, unpacked and went to bed with visions of little Scotty in our heads!

December 24th - Christmas Eve
We got up early, had breakfast at Ihop and then went straight to the hospital.  We visited with Rebeca, Jason and Scott for a while.
Here is Scott on his second day getting a hearing test which he passed with flying colors.  He got his first sticker for a good job!

  

Making faces at Abuelito

Then at exactly 4:15, we took pictures of Scott at 1 day old.

Every single time I see this picture of Scotty, I can't help but laugh!

December 25 - Christmas Day

Rebeca and Scotty come home today!!  Guillermo and I spent most of the morning putting his little Pac n Play together and after that, working on figuring out how to install the infant seat in Rebeca's car.  That proved too much for us and Jason came to help us figure it all out.  They finally got it installed and we all then went in two cars to the hospital.  We got to the hospital around 11:30am but once there, Rebeca said that they wouldn't be checking out until sometime after 1:30 or later.  So, we stayed awhile and then went back home to get some things done there.

This is the beautiful view Rebeca had from her room in the hospital which evidently was one of the nicer rooms.

There is a little bit of video of Scotty in his car seat and being brought into the house for the first time.  But I need to figure out how to put that on here first....

We had a nice Christmas dinner that evening that was really easy to get together thanks to picking up  several items from the Honey-Baked Ham store such as the turkey and mashed potatoes.  Guillermo made cranberries, I made the broccoli casserole and stuffing and with olives and gravy to round the meal out - it was a very good Christmas evening dinner.  Anyway, none of us got much sleep at all on Christmas night.  Scotty cried a lot of the night which is to be expected.  It was your typical "first night home with a newborn". 

Different Christmas tree

Spent the morning and early afternoon with Mom.  We ran a few errands of things she needed done and then we shopped at Central Market before having lunch at the Lion and Rose.  This was the Christmas tree in the lobby of that restaurant.

Can't remember if I've ever seen an upside down Christmas tree.  Kind of weird, but different for sure.

36!

Today was our 36th anniversary!!

I spent the morning with Mom and had lunch with her in the Menger Hotel.  This picture was taken after our lunch by the tree in the Menger lobby.

Then we headed out walking towards the Alamo and this is the tree in Alamo Plaza.

We kept on walking to the old Post Office and Courthouse building.  We wanted to see if it was still a post office and it is.  The main hallway of this post office had little window after little window where people would walk up to conduct business.   Then there were some bigger windows if you had packages to mail. We both remember how that post office looked inside so many years ago and it was nice to see it again.   There is no post office that I know of today that is set up like this one was.  After our little trip down memory lane, we walked back to the Menger Hotel, picked up our car and did a little grocery shopping before taking Mom back home.

In the afternoon, I took a walk around our neighborhood and here's a tree on our street that is just so beautiful!

In the evening, Guillermo and I went out to dinner to Fujiya Japanese restaurant.  We enjoyed our meal there very much and are so glad we decided to drive a little ways to get to this restaurant.

Not the best of days....

It all started in the morning when I once again told Guillermo that I'm pretty sure water is running somewhere because I hear it running in the bathroom.  I had been hearing that for quite a while but since Guillermo couldn't hear it, I thought maybe that's just the way our bathroom was.  But today he looked into it, walked the yard and sure enough, he found water on the side of our front yard.  Noooooo.....
So, we called a plumber at around 12:30 in the afternoon.  (We didn't discover this earlier in the day because we had gone grocery shopping.)
At around 1pm, the doorbell rang and we thought it was the plumber.  No, it was the mailman who had left a package on our doorstep.  Whaaaaaat??????  It's the package that I had mailed to Japan for Fernando and Eva for Christmas.   Whaaaaaaat????  And here I had been so happy knowing the package was on its way to them.  Instead, the package was back at our house - with a label saying due to security reasons it needs a customs form.  Well of course.  I had filled one out at the Helotes Post Office, after waiting in line for at LEAST 20 minutes.  But the fact is I had filled one out and handed it in to the clerk who took it and apparently put it aside. I didn't question why I didn't get the receipt from that form and I should have.   The clerk must have forgotten to put it on the package before throwing it in the pile of packages to mail.  It seems he should have put the form on the package anyway to send it on its way even if he forgot to give me the receipt.
ANYway, the Helotes Post Offices closed at 1pm, so I had no choice but to run over to a post office that stays open later (by the airport).  That post office was VERY crowded but there was an employee walking around looking for people who needed help and she told me to just fill out a form and she'd make sure the package was sent on its way.
When I get back home, the plumber is STILL not there!!!!  He didn't arrive until 4pm!!!  But he got the leak fixed and now there is no sound of water running in the bathroom.  Nice.  Aaaand that was our day!

Shed/greenhouse coming along nicely!

Guillermo is putting in a shed/greenhouse in the back yard.  He wishes he was further along on the project but for various reasons he hasn't been able to work on it all that much.  First there was the Japan trip, which we'd both gladly forego any shed/greenhouse for a trip like that one!  Then for a few days he was going over to our friend John Fardal's house to help him with an addition he's putting on to his house.  Then it had been rainy and VERY cold so it wasn't good weather to work outside.  So, this is where the shed/greenhouse is right now:

He just bought all those stones today and they fit almost perfectly.  There is a little space to the left where they don't cover and he'll probably put gravel in there or something.

He wants this mainly to get the lawnmower, wheelbarrow and some tools out of the garage and be able to have them in the backyard where he uses them more.  And then of course to place a few plants in winter that need protection from the cold.  It looked so big when he plotted it out, but now that the floor is in, it seems tiny.

Our Christmas tree

This is our Christmas tree this year!  Small, easy and quick.  Perfect for this year!

It's in the same corner that our beautiful big Christmas tree was last year.  The tree last year took up the whole corner.

And the Christmas village this year.

It is COLD today in San Antonio.  An arctic blast came in this morning and tomorrow and Saturday we could have some ice.  Looks like we are going to be having an extended cold period for a while now.

Sort of rivals Japan

But not quite.  Still, the trees around San Antonio are quite pretty right now with their reds and golds and oranges.  A lot of them are Crape Myrtles but there are quite a few red Oaks, also.