They are off to California

We got 'em for a whole, wonderful  9 days but then they left this morning for a couple more days' holiday in California.

Christmas Day in Tucson

Christmas Day started with brunch at Congress Hotel for special brunch. Larry and Jean drove down from Chandler to spend the day with us. Food was delicious, service extremely slow but gave us plenty of time to relax and visit and enjoy.


Dionne and Riley (Steph's sister in law/neice) joined us from Bloominton, IN for the Christmas week. Was certainly a fun addition, especially to have a little one in the house. Us big people have gotten away from Christmas presents so fun to watch a little one open presents and get excited about all the lights and activities.Our own "little ones" are enjoying family time in Singapore this year.

Biosphere 2

Went out to tour "Biosphere 2" up in Oracle.  Remember this living laboratory that was all in the news late 80's, early '90's. It's in the desert northeast of Tucson and now is owned and operated by University of Arizona. Now they do real time experiments there mostly around the topic of climate change.  It turned out to be an interesting tour, hearing the history, seeing the inside rain forest, ocean and etc., and seeing what is going on there now. Just a fun thing to do with the kids.



Then today while Steph and Reynard went to Phoenix, Will and I took a hike in Catalina State Park and stayed for sunset.


Surprisingly, we saw a few blooming flowers, like these poppies. These shouldn't be blooming until at least Feb. Strange year.

They are here!!

Stephanie and Reynard flew in today to spend the next 9 days with us.  We enjoyed having dinner on the patio, the heater took care of the cool evening chill.

Cheers!! Happy Holidays.

Fellowship Christmas

We gathered at Susie's house for our annual Fellowship Group Christmas pot luck. Susie set a lovely table and provided the main dish and we all filled in dishes to make a great dinner.  Then it was time for main event--our white elephant gift exchange.  Chris looks quite lovely in his fashionable scarf!

Carol got a singing cookie tin!

Finished with desert and lots of laughs and conversation. We missed Connie who was home with a sick cold. We also missed the presence of Jasper and Donnalee but like to think they were with us in spirit.

Light Festival in Tucson

Aren't these guys the perfect angels!! 

We went with friends Andy and Carol to see the Festival of Lights that has been going on in south Tucson all month. The light displays and small carnival turned out to be quite fun. 

The evening sunset added some competition to the light displays.

This dragon--which I only got a picture of the head and small part of body-- was made out of thousands of China plates!

Bunch of kids!!  We had to go down the carpet slide.  The carnival rides reminded us of the carnivals we use to go to when we all were kids! That's Will, Andy and Linda.

Raku Party

Went to one of my "pottery bud's" home last Friday for a Raku firing. Glennda does this every month, usually on the second Friday night and invites whoever wants to come. Always a fun group of people--potters are a pretty fun group--and well attended. Everyone brings thier bisqed pieces, huddles around her patio painting the raku glazes that she supplies and enjoying a pot luck supper.Then we head to the back yard where the kiln is all ready and begin the main event. Load the kiln, bring temp up to 1800 degrees and then quickly open the kiln, carefully remove the items and put each piece in a tub with organic (newspaper) which quickly burst into flame. Then quickly slam the lid to trap the carbon which makes the distinctive black raku finish. Then onto next load
Out of my 5 pieces, my eagle turned out the best. Nice copper metalic look with black carbon accents.
Those are my tiles drying on top of kiln, waiting thier turn.
Glennda demonstrated how to do the "horse hair" pottery for some new people while the piece was fresh out of kiln and super hot.

It's not uncommon to lose some pieces during this process. This one didn't make it through the shock of sudden temperature change.  Oh well, it was a good effort.

Brendan Fuller pottery

Today Will and I went downtown to the 4th Avenue Street Fair. It's a big deal, juried art fair that happens in December and March and draws huge crowds to 4th Ave.  Artists come into town from all over the country. The one fair, even Will looks forward to going to. Well the first day of the fair started out with a very un-Tucson rain storm.  Amazing downpour that sent a flood of water down the streets overwhelming storm drains. We almost didn't go but then decided sky was clearing up PLUS it was a good chance crowds would be low.  A few booths didn't open today but most were up and ready to sell thier wares when we got there.  Good time. And before we left the sun was shing and heating up.  But most fun was meeting Brendan Fuller, a potter from Redmond, Washington who just happens to be the son of one of my high school best friends, Dorothy (Vetter) Fuller! I got a quick email from Dot, letting me know he'd be there.  He wasn't hard to find.  His work very distinctive. I liked it a lot. Brendan actually makes his living doing his art, how fun is that. He's truly a professional, not only makes his own glazes but invented the one that has become his signature. Enjoyed visiting with him.