Thursday, December 25, 2008

X-mas day

I had a great X-mas!

A visit and a hike with Traci, Vassil, Jasmin and Indi on X-mas eve, some "Merry X-mas" phone conversations with friends and family in the morning and than a full day of volunteering at "the Mission" in Las Cruces. I helped set up the gift tables for the children's program, drove around and delivered meals over town, and than gave out gifts to mothers, fathers and grandparents of underprivileged children of all ages....

A laid-back get-together in El Paso to finish off the day....

It really was a good X-mas, focused on others, rather than the usual egocentricity of daily life where everything tends to orbit around ourselves; OUR jobs, OUR feelings, OUR interactions, OUR day events... a nice change! I hope to carry some of it into the new year!!!

A gardian angel...

Tuesday was quite an eventful day.... First thing in the morning, I found out mom had to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics for a recurrent inflamed colon! I'm keeping in regular contact with the overseas crowd about progress, plans and schedules.... and am glad to report as of today she is doing well, despite being NPO for X-mas!!!. A private room, a phone line, X-mas decorations and visits from the grandchildren can do wonders!!! We'll hopefully know more about the plan of care and action early next week. I'll keep you posted. Still, it doesn't give me a real nice warm cosy fuzzy X-mas feeling!!

After some telephone chatter, a very hardy -but not so healthy- breakfast, Andre, Jake, Mocha and I spent a few hours hiking in Dog Canyon. The winds picked up slowly but steadily and I'm counting myself lucky we didn't get blown off the mountain.... Still, a great hike...




We decided to go to "Applebees" for late lunch/early dinner, despite my general dislike of big corporate restaurants with mediocre food. It's right around the corner from my apartment and easy to get to with malfunctioning traffic lights all over town due to the wind storms. (I feel I have to explain why I would ever go to Applebees without somebody holding a gun to my head ;-) ).....

Well, I choked on my food, really choked, as in "Heimlich-maneuver-choked"...... A piece of chicken was totally stuck and uncooperative in moving up or down.... I got out of the booth, gave the universal "I'm choking sign" and after one unsuccessful -gentle, afraid to hurt me- attempt to dislodge it, this elder man appeared out of nowhere, stepped in gently and really thumped me HARD in and up my ribcage,.... the chicken came flying out.... and, although more than a little shaken, I'm here to tell the tale..... He wished us a Merry X-mas and disappeared as quietly and inconspicuously as he initially appeared.... my guardian angel I guess....

"You have a guardian angel,
Who watches over you,
Everywhere you go,
And everything you do.

This gentle silent helper,
Is there to be your guide,
To shelter and protect you,
And for you to walk beside.

Your angel will always help you,
Whenever things go wrong,
They'll be the wings beneath your feet,
As life's path you walk along.

Feel it's calming presence,
Be enfolded by it's love,
And let your life be guided,
By a power from above."

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

MERRY X-MAS!!!


From the rehab department at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center... We sent this out to all the other departments at the hospital; It was a big hit and we had lots of fun composing it!!

And for the the New Year that's approaching fast, here is some thoughts passed on to me by a nice old man, a neighbor here at my apartment complex:

"Take time to work, it is the price of success.
Take time to think, it is the source of power.
Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the gods.
Take time to look around, it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul."

Monday, December 15, 2008

X-MAS

I have a tree!!! Granted it's not real -borrowed- but it's big and has lights and decorations!!! I decided to use my X-mas cards as ornaments and it's looking good!!!


Snow-shoeing

There's a first time for everything, including snow shoeing...

Ski Apache, the Ruidoso ski area has been getting quite a bit of snow in the past week, so I borrowed a pair of snowshoes, took in a 30 second instruction on the do's and don't's, dusted off my outdoor winter gear and off I went....

I found a trail and set out.... unfortunately it wasn't marked that well (or the blowing snow had covered up the signs) so I snow-shoe'd for 1.5 hours only, I really would have loved to go on for much longer.... Still great exercise, I really did love it and can't wait to go back....




Gerald Champion X-mas party

I never really liked company X-mas parties... but as everybody from the rehab department was going, I went too, at least for the dinner and "talent show" part.... We initially planned on taking part and doing a skit, but changed our mind at the last minute, much to my delight ;-)... Still, looking at the other entries, maybe we could have won a prize after all....

A few hundred people, the biggest variety of dress codes I've ever seen (including but not limited to cowboy hats and Levis' jeans and prom dresses), lots of alcoholic beverages including at our rehab table ;-) and a sound system that was in need of some updating....

As I was working bright and early Sunday, I left pretty early (Party-pooper?!?!) and was in bed be 10.30...

Our department did look good though....





White Sands full moon X-mas night...

It has been quite a few days since I've written anything, nothing wrong just TOO MUCH going on which is very much a good thing!!! I'll try my best to catch up on most of it tonight....

Friday 'White Sands' opened it's gates at night for a X-mas celebration.... It's the only winter full moon opening of the year and was definitely worth the visit. The visitor center was lit up with hundreds of luminarias, a life band was playing and snacks and hot drinks were provided. There were 2 informational lectures about the park and it's wildlife. Unfortunately they were given inside in the auditorium (no dogs allowed ;-( ) so we drove into the park, played frisbee and sledded down the sand dunes, watching the clouds come and go, hiding the full moon for most of the night.
It was great fun and not even that cold. I dressed with layers of thermals more prepared to climb a 20.000-er in the Himalaya's than for a few hours in the New Mexican desert!!! Still, I guess it's better to be warm than cold...

It attracted quite a few avid photographers..... I tried to take some pictures but without a tripod it didn't work quite that well....

Jake and Mocha excited to run the sand dunes...



Luminiarias -a photography attempt-....


Saturday, December 6, 2008

The good and bad of today...

I'm proud to announce I can call myself a real new Mexican resident: I received my first speeding ticket!!! 53 mph in a 35 zone... Whoops...... The officer was nice enough to write it up as only 10 mph over the limit, reducing the fine by half... Merry X-mas I'd say!!!

On the positive flip side... When I got home today, I found a little box by my front door with the perfect Sinterklaas-gift: Kaldi's coffee, a perfect reminder of St. Louis and my very dear friends there...
December 6th, St. Nick's day or Sinterklaas, is a huge holiday for Belgian kids. As I still consider myself a child, I still like the holiday too!!

Ruidoso X-mas parade of Lights

I'm finding it difficult to realize we're ramping up to the X-mas holidays.... The absence of cold weather, ice and snow, the lack of huge malls with decadently decorated stores, the fact that I'm not surrounded by family and close friends here, make it so that I don't get the guttural body response of "oh, X-mas is here!".

Tonight was a great little exception. Ruidoso (a tourist town up in the mountains, about an hour from here) had their annual X-mas parade of lights, the largest holiday parade in the southwest! I drove up with Traci and met Jesse, his family and some of their friends up there. The freezing cold weather, the brightly lit floats with X-mas winter themes, the holiday cheers and carols around the bonfire gave me a little boost.

My favorite float was one of decorated teepee's surrounded by trees...
The pictures aren't great, I didn't read the taking-pictures-in-the-dark-chapter of my little point-and-shoot camera book, but you'll get the idea I think.





More x-mas winterfun....

After the parade, they held a huge bonfire, truly american super-sized.... ;-)




Warm-up at the fire...





X-mas carols by the fire...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

It really looks like that here...

Two fabulous hiking days: one in the Franklin mountains in El Paso (yes, I did go to Texas, Bush country... voluntarily for anybody wondering ;-) ......) and one in Las Cruces; the A trail and Soledad canyon trail.

As I'm spending great times outside on the trails in 70 degrees sunny weather, I am silently grinning at the news reports of cloudy, rainy, stormy conditions with power outages in St. Louis....