This past holiday season my nephew, Brian, and I traveled to the southwest for the holidays; Brian to Las Cruces, NM while I headed to Tucson, AZ to spend time with Steev, Greta, and their dog Josie.  Since this blog is new to me, I am going to attempt to provide a daily accounting of activities.

December 19 & 20:  The weather forecast was not looking good; winter storm warning for Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.  We decided to leave home early with encountering some heavy ‘slush’ around the Missouri border and sleet around Kansas City.  Brian has been doing the driving with makes me thankful!  We spent the night at Comfort Inn in Lenexa, Kansas.  I am hoping Beauty and Cutie are doing okay in their new home (my bedroom) for the next few weeks.  We left on the 20th with 3″ of snow on the ground and ice underneath so very slow going for the first few hours.  Stopped for the night at Best Western in Guymon, OK.

December 21:  We arrived at Socorro, NM shortly afternoon; this is where my sister, Edith, was meeting up with Brian.  After Edith arrived, we went to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge; it was a great place with fox, cranes, owls, hawks, geese, ducks.  At sunset, we watched flocks of fowl settle in for the night; it was quite a sight!

Edith and Brian in happy mode

Sun is going down

December 22 and 23:  On the 22nd, Edith and Brian headed to Las Cruces while  I went to Tucson where Steev, Greta, and Josie greeted me with open arms and egg plant sandwiches.  Check in at the Best Western Royal Sun resulted in an upgrade to a suite which was very nice.  Went to Old Town Artisans for a couple short sleeve t-shirts because weather much warmer than I thought.  December 23rd was Steev’s 44th birthday and I am very anxious for him to open my present of a quilt made out of his father’s t-shirts.    After a long walk, he did open his presents and liked the quilt!  Went to brunch and then Steev/I went to the “Hobbit”;  three hours of  action.  That evening, after delicious soup/salad fixed by Greta, friends of Steev’s came over for cake/ice cream.  A very enjoyable day and evening.

Steev’s birthday party

Steev’s birthday quilt