Snow...

We have been trying to migrate South to avoid this, but it really snowed today.



With the weather cold we are stuck doing things inside.  Looks like Coral may have inherited the carnival game touch.




White Sands

Our white Christmas was spent at White Sands National Monument.  


We drove out today with our sleds to slide down the dunes.

































































We found these tracks, can you tell what they are?  Who wears high heels to visit the sand dunes?





I don't even want to meet the people who have complained about the static discharge from the boardwalk.  Isn't providing them a giant, handicap access boardwalk into the national park enough, do they really need it to be static free?  That said, it was really, really static-y.  Of course we spent the next 20 minutes shocking each other.




















Then we drove into Alamogordo for lunch and the zoo.





Hey, we ate these in Gabon.  Tastes like pork.








Christmas Day 2009

Coral with her Christmas bunny, Opal with her Christmas playmat.






Ruby got moldable soap foam.








Our pot of Christmas tamales.


Christmas Eve 2009

We had an early Christmas Eve Dinner with Steph's mom and brother and then headed to Old Mesilla for Christmas songs and luminarias on the plaza.

There were lots of people and lots of candles, and occasionally a flare of light as someone bumped a luminaria and the bag lit on fire.





We stopped for a few minutes and listened to Mass.

 

 

Maasani with her granddaughters.   Coral could only find one of her "muttons" but insisted on wearing it anyway, it wasn't really that cold.

 

One of the old homes on the plaza was decorated and open to visitors.

 

 

Ruby and Coral finally dragged themselves to bed about 9:30 so Santa could come.





Merry Christmas Everyone!


El Paso, Texas



We took a day trip to El Paso, Texas today.  We went to the El Paso Saddle Blanket Company, Lin's Buffet (famous for all the wrong reasons, though we didn't find out till later.  The food was really good), the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Cultural Center (museum was closed, manager went for tacos we were told by a vendor), Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Mission, the El Paso History Museum, the El Paso Museum of Science, a Korean grocery, Chico's Taco's and finally a Posada at St. Anthony's Seminary.  All-in-all, not a bad day for 7 people in one car and Opal is just two months old.

Here is the statue outside the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Cultural Center.



The mission church was built in 1851.




All the Christmas decorations were up.













There was this large photo in a little side alcove, with no explanation and no one to ask.













Then we went to the El Paso Museum of History.





Coral found "100 years of El Paso Royalty gowns"




Opal by the cotton gin.



Ruby and Coral with their buildings.



We walked across the street to the El Paso Science Museum.



Coral had a blast with the thermal imaging camera.



And we all enjoyed the big 15 foot tesla coil demonstration



After the science museum we went out to the Asian market for goodies and then back into El Paso where we had time for a quick dinner before the Posada.  We followed up our now controversial lunch selection with a controversial dinner selection, Chico's Taco's. (We didn't know any of this stuff, we were really just winging it, both Lin's and Chico's Tacos)





Then we headed over to St. Anthony's Seminary for a Spanish Posada (meaning that it was all in Spanish, we needed direcciones so we called the number and the person who answered the phone didn't speak English).  We didn't know what a Posada was either, but if pinata's were involved we figured it was probably casual enough that we could blend.  Next year we will be better prepared.



8 Weeks old

Opal is 8 weeks old today.










Already hanging out with her sisters, chattering away.



Sunday Morning

Having a third kid reduces the chances of getting all of them looking at the camera by a third.







Feast of the Virgin de Guadeloupe at Tortugas Pueblo





Steph checked the list of local happenings for the weekend and what do you know there was a feast this weekend, just 10 minutes from our house, in Tortugas.  We went last night at the end of the procession.  The people participating in the procession carried yucca stalks, with little crosses on top.




This morning we went back and there were two separate dances going on, one Pueblo style dance and one Matachine dance.


We watched the Pueblo Style dancing first










Here are some of the masks that the dancers wore.








Then we went to check out the Matachine dancing.





























After the morning dancing there was the feast, carne adovada, beans, bread, meatballs, and macaroni and cheese, for desert biscochitos and coke.


Here we are waiting to get into the Casa de Comida.





While we were waiting in line, a few of the little old ladies came over to see Opal, and after cooing over her made they would each make the sign of the cross on her forehead.  Then the priest came over and gave her a little blessing.  Coral must have been paying attention, because she started making little signs of the cross in the sand.




After lunch the dancing started again with some dancers in the church yard and others parading through the pueblo.












A nice little article about the Tortugas Pueblo.

Girls and their cradleboards

Here are the girls under their respective cradleboards and then the girls being goofy.  Opal has sure grown up in the last week or so.













It's beginning to look a little like Christmas

We are finally settled in enough that we could go get a Christmas tree.

We looked at every tree on the lot, smelled them, compared them, argued with the salesman.   Maybe we are starting to savor life's little events (one can always hope).


Success!  Coral was upset because Stephanie told here that the tree didn't mean that Christmas was tonight.





Market Segmentation ...

... is when there are frozen pig heads in the freezer at Wal-Mart. Can't you almost taste the tamales?










Blog Changes

We changed our blog name, our old naming scheme just wasn't going to work anymore.

Introducing "FALLING ROCKS."  We did a full revamp ...


Renovations

We're making some changes.  Please bear with us.

Crisis 2009 continues ...

Just when we thought that life was calming down Opal decided to mix things up a little. She was a little flu-y and Steph took her to the clinic. The doctor told her to keep an eye on her and if it got worse to bring her back to Crownpoint. (Matt, Ruby and Coral were in Las Cruces getting the house ready)

Long story short, at 4 am the next morning Opal and Steph were on a Medivac flight from Crownpoint to the Presbyterian pediatric unit in Albuquerque. All is well now, but we are hoping this is the last crisis we have for a while.

Feeling better

This is a much nicer bed than she has at home.

Pooped and ready to go home.

In other news, we are all moved. We got all our stuff out of storage and can't, for the life of us, figure out where all this junk came from.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with Steph's Aunts this year. Thanks Grandma Nina for hosting.

Here is Coral and her cousin Fallera.


The kids had a fun afternoon out playing in the sun.
Coral with her Uncle Kelly.
Coral's buns came out and left her with a goofy hair-do, not unlike a certain lady a few posts down (check out the Pueblo Pintado princess post).

Goofy Coral

Coral put on her mother's glasses and started to be a little ham.


Stephanie's Nalis

We went to visit Stephanie's grandparents in Ojo Encino today.

Here are the girls with their great-grandfather Nali George (Stephanie's dad's dad).


and their Nali Rose (Coral was being shy and refused to sit with her sisters).


Here is Nali Rose getting to know her youngest great-grandchild.


Finally as we were leaving Coral gave her great-grandmother a hug.



New Outhouse

Ruby had a special chore today. She helped her uncle move grandma's outhouse.


Happy Thanksgiving at Pueblo Pintado

We went to the Thanksgiving program at the elementary school today.




We made a compilation video of the highlights.

First is the color guard.

Then the pledge of allegiance in Navajo.

Then the kindergarten class does their interpretation of the first Thanksgiving, where the pilgrims arrive in the year 1620 to the Pueblo Pintado in a steamer ship and are saved by hunger with the gift of fry bread. It was pretty cute.

Then the 3rd graders sing "Home on the Range"

Finally Grandma Emma's Dine Club does a traditional song and dance.

video

Opal slept through the whole program.



Trip to Canyon de Chelly


Nali Dot had a special request while they were visiting, to do a tour of Canyon de Chelly.

So Sunday afternoon, Nali Dot, Nali Dale, Ruby, Coral and Matt headed to Chinle, Arizona to spend the night and get up the next morning for our tour.

Here is Spider Rock, which is an important site in Navajo mythology.



Here are the girls ready to take off in the tour jeep.





Some of the Anisazi pictographs.





These images are Navajo and Hopi, petroglyphs of Sapniards on the left and clan symbols on the right, thought to be territorial markers.



Some of the Anisazi ruins




This was our guide. He didn't even have to look to see were he was and could answer all the questions before they were finished being asked.




We got the back seat of the jeep and probably annoyed the rest of the tour group with our constant chatting.


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Coral and Ruby's favorite part of the whole tour was playing in the cottonwood leaves. This is probably the first time they have been around piles of leaves, guess somethings we take for granted when the kids don't.


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Giant cow pictograph. I guess every neighborhood has one of those people.





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