Beckys family had their family Christmas on thursday. We had ours on friday.. and we spent saturday all together which worked out great.. we had just the right mix of big and small gatherings. Today we started with a great hike on thie outskirts of santa fe. I dont remember the name of the place but weve been there before.. great views of the mountains and the city

Then we headed back to the house ready for an early evening dinner… Thank he had made beef Wellington from scratch… Diane made creamed spinach and then we had leftover homemade pasta from the night before it was quite a feast !

After dinner in Scott fun… We started doing science demos like shining UV lasers through alcohol and olive oil (Fresh olive oil fluoresces pink…if you heat it too much it changes to red.. And stays that way… Even write a short blurb about that for cooks illustrated which they never published..dang)..

And we put some steel wool in the microwave!

We can use the night with a family Christmas tradition of decorating a tree for the animals… This time we didn’t have far to go. We took some old still bagels and hung them in Max and Becky’s chicken coop… A real treat for the birds.

What a wonderful day!

Nite all, nite sam

– me

Today we all glt together at mx and Becky’s to celebrate our family. Christmas. Our family is a blended culture and we celebrate both customs…. and its a whole lot of fun.. we started at o ur airbnb

Packed the var and headed over to max and beckys.. its really fun all being together…

Sam is always with is.. we are always thinking of him when we are together .

we showed up at max an Becky’s around 10. And the party started.

Max made a beef wellington for us all when we get together with the neils tomorrow.

The dogs viloet and ben are excited too ! Our dogs used ot love christmas. Chai would always find her stocking and take the toys out before we all came down .. we miss those girls !

We spent the whole day eating, exchanging very cool presents and hanging out.. it was really wonderful.. max made us all stings of lignts with. 3d printed versions of our schoolhouse.. how cool is that ?

We had lox and bagels for breakfast

And cookies

Gabe gave is some really cool stuff including a calendar with all of our pets over time.. and socks with his dog nova on them .. he got max socks with volet and becky with her late cat ruckus.. . I got a rope dart to start learning fire spinning. Such thoughtful and creative gifts.

One of the gifts max got was a kitchenaid mixedr withi a pasta attachemnt.. so thatss. What we all made for dinner .,. It was really fun allworking together to make it with scampi scallops

Rain let up right after dinner .. so we all got dressed and headed downtown tfor the annual ‘ferolito’ festival.. there were arts gallerys and luminairs lights all over t he place.. we met up with beckys parents and her brother and sister and law. It was so beutiful and so fun !

Such a wonderful day .. I love my family..

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday…

Nite all, nit sam

– me

Today was the day that the Niels had their family Christmas… So we use the day to do some last-minute shopping and Diane spent a good portion of the day making a wonderful assortment of Christmas cookies… All and prep for sharing for the rest of the week… Shopping was kind of crazy… The cookies were wonderful !

Keep came in just before nine that night in the three of us went to the tuna café just down the road from Maxis… It was a great way to start the vacation with Gabe.…

It was very good having the whole family together… Of course… Having a whole family has a different meeting now… But sam was with us every step of the vacation. We feel his presence every day… Even more strongly when we’re all together. We miss you buddy

Then we went by the house to say hi to Max and Becky and Beckys Brother Dansister in law Elizabeth Who had also just come in



We began today with a gorgeous’s steep run up the dale ball North trails. They’ trails are named after my good friend David’s late stepfather… He organize all of these trails. This one was really really great… Got up to a place where we could get some great views

Today Max and Becky took us to Bandelier national Monument… It’s right outside of Los Alamos we’re both Becky’s parents have worked at one time or the other.… Bandolier is an amazing historical and natural wonder… It was inhabited for thousands of years before being abandoned about 450 years ago. We got to tour the cliff dwellings and take a beautiful walk. We even saw a couple of mule deer… We then had a great picnic of burritos and Chile rellenos That we brought with us.

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Finished up with Chinese food at Max and Becky’s

Spectacular day 

Nite all, nite sam

-me