We have been so busy with the Holiday that today we got a little bit of time to relax:) Well, that is once Steven's basketball team left! We had them over today for lunch and video games. Steven has done a really good job with them this year. That lasted about four hours. But it was nice. The kids got to come over, eat, play video games, play in the backyard, and just hang out. CC helped cook the hamburgers and hot dogs...thank goodness:) Emma and I played Memory, and took a walk up to Tech. I walked with Kona and she rode her scooter. She did such a good job. She has never been on one before so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, she did it. She said it was great exercise! Here are a few pictures of her new scooter.

We also took her tonight to see Alvin and the Chipmunks!

Merry Christmas!

It was a great day...I knew I had gone overboard on gifts for Emma, but it was her first real Christmas where she knew what was going on. She had asked for a Scooter and a bike from Santa. She woke up and said "Today is Christmas? Do we get to open all of our presents? Because Santa brought a present for you, dad, and for me...for everyone, lets go!" She was so excited to see that Santa had brought her a scooter, but she didn't see the bike so she said, he brought me a scooter, but not a bike. She looked so sad...but the bike was covered..so whe was happy when she saw it. She was really just trying to take it all in. There was so much...the presents, a note from Santa, the stockings, the milk and cookies were gone...but she did really good. She opened all her presents; stopping periodically to say " where are your presents, you and daddy need to open some", in less than two hours, got ready for church in thirty minutes, and then rushed off. After church we went to CC's house for lunch with her family. Emma got a Bella ballerina dance mat and dvd from Synthea which she loved and had to open right away. She made me go home and get her new tutu that she got from Megan and Kyle. She had a great Christmas! Hope all of you did too.

**Lindsey

Twas the Night Before Christmas...







1. It began with making reindeer food...in our Summer dress!





2. Took a bath and opened one present...Christmas pajamas of course!


3. Went outside at 30 degrees to spread reindeer food all over the ground and roof for the reindeer!





4. Put a plate of cookies and glass of milk for Santa



5. Read our favorite Christmas stories and fell asleep

Matanza

Speaking of Holiday traditions new and old, Mike decided to keep up with a tradition we hadn't done since 2001, a matanza, or the killing of a pig. He found a 400+ pound, grain-fed pig and invited the family to the backyard at my mom's. The weather was cold and it made the experience even better. After all was said and done we counted over 60 adults throughout the day. The men stayed outside (my mom even thought of a porta-pottie) and butchered the pig, cooked different dishes like carne adovada, sang and visited while the women stayed inside and fixed deserts and bagged all the meat. This was one of those things that really brings you back home and helps you remember where you came from. My Dad's brother, Abel drove down from Albuquerque with his guitar and a picture from the last matanza in 2001. The picture was of my Dad standing and stirring the chicharones. Even though he wasn't there now, he really was. He loved that stuff, especially his family. He did everything he could for them and made sure they were ok and taken care of before himself. My Dad, Socorro, my family, really remind me of what it's all about. Thanks to Mike for doing this whole thing (my check for helping with the expenses is in the mail :) it was really special.

I recently heard someone comment about how Socorro has nothing to do.......my response to that, "what more do you need?"

Santa Claus: How about a nice football?

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Football? Football? What's a football? With unconscious will my voice squeaked out 'football'. Santa Claus: Okay, get him out of here.

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] A football? Oh no, what was I doing? Wake up, Stupid! Wake up!

Ralphie: [Ralphie is shoved down the slide, but he stops himself and climbs back up] No! No! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!

Santa Claus: You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

No other movie has done it better than A Christmas Story. 24 hours straight starts today! Merry Christmas to everybody, enjoy the time and make it special.

So, the Christmas Season is off to a great start. It began with finding the perfect Christmas tree, in the Cibola National Forest, west of Socorro. Steven, Emma, CC, and I took the Landcruiser and some lunch and drove up the Mountain to Datil, NM. It was really cold and rainy; but a beautiful drive. It was the first time I had ever cut down my own tree, but for Steven a special memory of his dad. Now, I look forward to it being one of our many traditions for Christmas.

**Lindsey

Emma is growing and learning pretty fast these days. Lindsey does such a great job keeping her busy and Emma loves every bit of it. These are a couple of pictures of her working on some projects they had came up with. Over the weekend we spent the day at Tech and Emma rode her bike all over the empty campus sidewalks. We picked some misletoe from the cottonwoods and even visited Santa at the student unioun building and made some reindeer antlers later that afternoon. That evening we attended a performance at Macey Center called a Verry Merry-Achi Christmas. For being such a small town, Socorro does a good job as far as the arts go.

Please let me know if you're still checking the website by leaving a comment. I know I sort of stopped adding for a while there but I am trying to keep things updated. Thanks for visiting.

-Steven

Thanksgiving 2007



Yes it has been a long time, a long time without internet or a camera. And now we have both!

Here are some pictures from the fourth. Danny and Misha acame over and we grilled up so much food and had lots of fun. I can remember 5 years ago when we had just come back from our honeymoon and came to visit Las Cruces for the fourth. We had such a good time we decided to move from Socorro and we just went and did it. Along the way we've made some great friends and had some good times. Now as we celebrate our last Las Cruces fourth I'm really looking ahead to all the fourths we'll be spending in Socorro watching the Tech fireworks and hopefully still cooking out with the same ol' friends.

"I'm what I am and I'm what I'm not, and I'm sure happy with what I've got. I live and love and laugh a lot and that's all I need."

Emma got her first and hopefully only tattoo, because that's something that good girls just don't do (sorry Linds). It was cool though because it was birds just like mine and she enjoyed it while it lasted. Emma and I also made our first cake together. It was for the fourth and it came out great, in fact I just cleaned up the pan today.

Happy Anniversary Linds. 6/22/02

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to when you have forgotten the words.

Emma has been as silly as ever. She loves to play pretend lately. Below she and Lindsey were playing "spa". They do each others hair, nails, massage.....I think Lindsey is just training her for later. Poor little Emma just thinks it's fun.

Then she was fingerpainting which turned into face painting.

And last but certainly not least, Sue came over for a visit and we broke out our new beach cruisers for a ride to the swimming pool.

Emma has been in swim lessons now for almost three weeks and she is doing so good. She practices the crawl and breast strokes, jumps off the diving board, and can even dive and flip off the side! She continues to amaze us.

Fishing

It took her 2 trips but Emma caught her first fish! Her Disney Princess pole caught a big 'ol carp at Elephant Butte this morning. We used a pice of hot dog and set it out and continued to eat breakfast when all of a sudden her pole was going into the lake, luckily Clarissa spotted it and ran in after it. And yes, we let it go back cause I ain't eating no carp! Oh yeah, Lindsey wanted to know if we had any bait for Mahi Mahi?

Emma being silly......like usual.

Starting Off Summer Right

Lindsey and I started off summer right this year with a visit from Tom, celebrated Sue's retirement from teaching, and we took Emma on her very first camping and fishing trips. Emma had a blast with the worms and seeing a catfish. She was so excited because the fish had whiskers like a cat. Camping was fun too, making hot dogs and smores over the fire. We slept in a tent and even hiked a little.

You can never replace time once it has passed so it's better to take advantage of the time you have now and the time ahead of you. That's all you have control over so make that time count.