CHRISTMAS EVE LUMINARIES

Volunteers were busy today, putting together and setting up thousands of luminaries around the park. It was amazing how little time it took-you can tell they've done it before. Here they're placing them in front of us.


Our street finished.

Don lighting ours.

Our neighborhood to the left.

To the right.

Our street from the office.

Here are the Ludekings luminaries-they're not here yet-and don't know if they were able to make it out of the snow yet! Hope they have a safe trip!

Our lights.

We hope you enjoyed seeing our luminaries and also hope you're enjoying your families and friends on this wonderful holiday. Tomorrow we're attending the Christmas potluck with ham provided. It should be fun. Merry Christmas to all of you!

DAY AND NIGHT

Here's our street during the day.

At night, our palm trees in the center, come to life (looking right).

Looking left.

FIESTA GRANDE RESORT

We made it on Thursday, and have been enjoying the nice weather. We were able to get a space on the lane in, until Feb. 8th. Al and Shirley Ludeking from Decorah, are due this week, but the snow pictures that they sent us, make it doubtful. So far we've cleaned some cabinets and relaxed. We've signed up for some activities and will play card bingo later this afternoon. Here are a few pictures of the park. First, the office, which has a library, laundry,etc. attatched.

The meeting room is behind.

Behind the building is one of the pools and a hot tub, and then shuffelboard courts.



Here we are.

Our dining room table looks out on this beautiful bush.

GETTING CLOSE

This is a view of Picacho Peak about twenty miles from Casa Grande, AZ. It has an interesting shape.

ON TO EL PASO AREA

Today we drove to Clint which is just east of El Paso. There's no doubt that west Texas is oil country. There are refineries and oil wells everywhere.



Then we went from totally flat land to mountains.

We could see Mexico in the distance and there were 8 border patrol trucks in one area, so they must have been expecting something to happen.

Here's the view of Mexico from our campground.

Tomorrow we'll drive into New Mexico and hopefully get to Arizona. I forgot-I drove today-about 20 miles-and everything's still in one piece!And-now I'm finally caught up!!! I can hardly believe it!

ON TO MIDLAND,TX

We were awakened at 6 o'clock on Monday morning by two big bombers from Dyess Air Force Base, since we were in the flight path. It was like a sonic boom! What a way to start the day! Obviously, we got an early start, and made it to Midland. The only thing to see there is George Bush's boyhood home. We just drove by.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We left Dallas on Sunday and headed to Abilene. Along the way, there were three things, cotton fields, windmills and oil wells.

TRADERS VILLAGE

We stayed at the Traders Village campground, so we wandered over to the flea market, which is mostly junk.

NEW RELATIVES

Recently I got an e-mail from a cousin of mine that I had never met, but was happy to find a representative from that branch of the family. His great-grandfather was a brother of my great-grandfather. He and his daughter came to visit while we were in Dallas, and we spent about 5 1/2 hours discussing family history. It proves he's a Moes, because we've been known to do some talking! It was nice to meet them.

GEORGE AND LAURA'S

We couldn't leave Dallas without being nosey-so we went looking for George and Laura Bush's new house. It looks like the secret service will have a hard time protecting the area. The houses in the neighborhood are large, but are close together. Soon there'll be changes.

MAIN STREET BREAD BAKING CO.

We had a sandwich at the Main St. Bread Baking Co., and thought we'd make you hungry.

This is for the Grinnell girls of the Sister act-it's called a Chocolate Nun!

DOWNTOWN GRAPEVINE, TX

We heard that Grapevine is known for their Christmas decorations. They had a lot of lights, but it's hard to get the full effect during the day.



Don and friend.

MORE ICE

Santa in ice.

They even had sliding boards-we passed-but it looked like fun.

Through a tunnel.

To an angel.

Followed by a shepherd.

And the crib scene.

Wow, what a great time!

"ICE"

The Gaylord resort flies 40 artists from China to Texas to create the ice sculptures. It takes about 2 months to make them, and they start with 2 million pounds of ice and then chip away half of it. Some of it is clear and some is colored. They give everyone a parka to wear in the exhibit, as they keep it at 9 degrees-but it was 6 degrees when we were in there. I had a little difficulty with the camera-it would go black after each picture. I had to put it up my sleeve to warm it up in between. It was kind of pricey, but truly amazing and worth the money!!!



The details on the children were amazing!



A room full of ornaments.

Even a gingerbread house.