We do hope that you are well, and that life is peaceful and good. Our boys continue to grow, and their antics keep us tired, but never bored. We are well – each year seems to race by quicker, until we look up one day and say uh-oh – better start on the Christmas letter or it will be an Easter letter and everyone will wonder what happened to us.

In the Clovis Culture Zodiac this was the Year of the Basement. We have lived, eaten, breathed and dreamed basement, and like every building project since the days of Rameses II, it is still not done. It started off quite simple – we had been wondering for a long time how we were ever going to be able to replumb the bathroom and rewire the back of the house, as basically from halfway beneath the kitchen everything was sitting directly on dirt, gently moldering through the years and channeling into adobe is a filthy and difficult job. Well, a mason cum general contractor we know called Steve came by, complaining that he had no work and was broke and his guys were fed up with him because he had not paid them. Well, Shelley had a bright idea – let’s put these starving ne’er do wells to work and enlarge the basement through to under the bathroom – solve several problems at one fell swoop. That was in March. We estimated that it would be about a $15,000 job. Anyway, soon we had guys complaining about the slave labor working conditions down there – pick and shovel work, and haul the dirt out in buckets. Slow, tedious and extremely unexciting, while thick ciggy smoke and curses filtered their way through the floorboards. And dirt!! The soil here is a rather fine clay dumped by rivers past, and under the house it was bone dry and set very, very hard! We bought the guys an electric hammer to break it up with, but it was still very hard going, and the fine dust was sifting up through the floorboards and getting everywhere. Not very pleasant. Like all projects this one evolved as we went, and the basement evolved into a multi level, multiroomed money muncher, with a cell, (sorry, strong room), very small wine cellar, up to the original section, and then back down 2 steps to the centrally heated section under the kitchen and bathroom. It is still awaiting tiling, plastering, glass in the window hole, installation of the under-floor heating, water softener, rewiring, re-plumbing etc etc. We do not yet see the light at the end of the tunnel, though at one point we thought about digging our own tunnel all the way to Taos. Once the heating is installed, (by Xmas fingers crossed!!) then Steve will be able to finish plastering and lay tile, put in the window and we should be almost there. Then we have to install a stairway, and lots of cupboards ……………………..needless to say it passed our original estimate several months ago!!!!!

Next year in the Clovis Culture Zodiac should be the year of the garage……….. ‘nough said!!

Workwise the year was a pain – in May the County Courthouse, in which the Magistrate Court was located, was closed because of mold fumes from a flooded basement (happened every year but this was the first year they did something about it, so my Chief Clerk ended up commuting to Las Vegas every day and hating it, while I ended up commuting to Taos every day and hating it. We finally moved into our new Court (a big trailer, high class for Mora) in September and it was very welcome, though I have been unable to catch up with all the work that was backlogged for me. We were appointed a new Judge as the old one had been ousted due to the efforts of my Chief Clerk, and the new one lost the election to a challenger, so we will have another new Judge at the beginning of 2005. While the Court is in a new location, all the other County employees are back to their old posts in the moldy building. The voters just passed a bond to raise a phenomenal sum for a new Courthouse, so we shall see if or when it ever materializes.

We have been attending rendezvous for several years, but this was the first time we went for the duration and camped in the primitive area. Everything (at least everything in sight) has to be pre 1840. It took a while to collect all the paraphernalia. We used to camp by the parking lot, or occasionally stay in a motel, and walk-in. It’s a lot of fun. Hopefully some of you will join us sometime. We can lend enough clothes to pass muster. (Rendezvous is a form of historical re-enactment re-creating the days of the trappers and mountain men of the West).

JJ finished head start and started kindergarten and is doing very well. He walks around spelling all the words he can find – he can’t read yet but he can spell!! Kindergarten gives his poor father a break, so he only has to take care of the baby in the mornings while I work. Don Diego is doing very well at all the standard things like walking and sprouting teeth and is in to anything and everything, so there are frequent howls at pinched fingers, bumped toes and banged heads. It is not possible to baby proof a house and still live in it – his trick now is stretching up to get at things on the table or any other flat surface – I have to be careful and push everything well away from the edge. The hot woodstove is still a serious concern – he veers too close to it for our comfort, to a chorus of Hot! and No! – we do not want to put a fireguard around it, as if he were to get inside of it he could be trapped and seriously burned, so we just have to be very vigilant. He is a comic – loves to make us laugh and has a great baby sense of humor. He and JJ play together very well – lots of running around in circles after each other and laughing.

I must close this letter now or no-one will get it before Christmas, so we want to wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year – let’s hope 2005 is a good one for all!!

Love and hugs

Jack, Shelley, JJ & Don Diego

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