Christmas greetings from drift bound Holman, New Mexico with wishes for a tame white Christmas, instead of the wild windy version we are getting right here now.

Well, and what a year it has been. I am actually writing this letter in lieu of a trip to Albuquerque for some supplies shopping. We actually managed to get out of our driveway, over some very large snowdrifts, and onto the main road, from whence we watched the wind covering the road back up with blown snow. We made it six miles to Mora, had breakfast at the Cowboy Kitchen, and headed back home where, with a bit of slithering, along with groaning and grinding noises from the truck we managed to get back up the driveway. Sigh of relief. Then I got out of the truck to open the front door – but there were no steps. There was a perfect, very deep drift of snow over what had been spotlessly clean steps just two hours before. So we dug our way into the house, and plan on not going out for quite a while. We do not know where to shovel to effect, as the wind keeps moving the scenery, so we are going to let Nature take her course. JJ doesn't mind. No school and sleding in the yard!

The Court follows the school schedule for weather, so I have been off the last two days. Paid, so I am not complaining. That will come tomorrow morning when I have to battle back to work. Work has been a trip this year – Judge Sanchez tried to get me fired for doing my job, and damn nearly succeeded. Well, I decided to fight back – all I can say is that the battle has been hard on the nerves of the people at the AOC, who I am sure would fire us all and torch the Mora Magistrate Court if they could.

I have had one enormous blessing come my way – Judge Sanchez demanded, and got, a gal called Cindy from Las Vegas Magistrate Court to be acting Chief Clerk, since in amongst all the fun and games Sofie, chief clerk at Mora for 25 years retired, and the State is out of money to hire any new staff anywhere. Well, Cindy is marvelous. She has brought great energy and organization to the court and proved to be a delightful, easygoing co-worker. I thank God every day for Cindy – she is a solid buffer between me and Judge Sanchez, and now, for the first time in nearly 5 years, I can go to work, do my job and leave!!! Just that!!!!!!!!!!

The family is doing well – we have been healthy and the boys are growing up and doing well in school. JJ is very tall, with big feet already, and he is learning to play the French horn, as his music teacher decided that he would have the height and strength to be able to handle it in a marching band. He loves it, and is doing well with it. Practice is kinda hard on everyone else as he does not really have any sense of pitch, but French horn is not expected to be a solo instrument. With all the snow he is anxious to get out and ski at Sipapu resort, which is just up the road 15 miles. He is nervous of hills, but hopefully that will work out with practice and confidence. Don Diego is smart and funny, and gets way too much of his own way – we started him on guitar, but due to the busy season lessons will resume in January. He is very dressy, which JJ is not, and his favorite model is Yul Brynner (remember him??) from the Magnificent Seven. Lots of black, and very elegant. He loves working with K-nex construction materials, and has proved to be very good at following the instructions for building different things, and then adding on very creatively. He is fascinated by large reptiles, and we have quite a video collection on all sorts of toothy, scaly things with large appetites and bad attitudes. Zoologist mom doesn’t mind, but Dad gets kinds of tired of the crunchy munchy people for lunchy thing.

Not much travel this year, but Jack did get out to California in March for some visiting. Jack only wishes he could have had another week and seen more people. As usual, we did the Raton Rendezvous. Jack and JJ won men's and boy's cloth costume contests.

Las Vegas range requires minors to have Hunter Safety Education Cards to be on the range, even as spectators so Jack took JJ to get his. As a parent must accompany under 12's, he decided to take the test and get the card hinmself. After this he received some pressure to volunteer as an instructor. He did his first class with JJ and me in it. We both passed in spite of him and I am volunteering to join the teaching team for future classes. Don Diego was very disappointed that he is too young, but by the time he is old enough to take it he will know it all by heart, as he and JJ have to attend every class if both parents are helping teach it. We do not have a baby sitter, although we are in negotiations with a neighbor gal for services.

I bought a landowners permit for a cow elk hunt this year, and I decided to time my 5 days hunting last week. I saw the tail end of one bull elk, and that was it. Very disappointing, but even at that I learned a lot, and next year I will not come away empty handed.

I have been on a major diet since late June, and my cholesterol and triglycerides are finally within normal limits, and I am many pounds down. From Thanksgiving has been a bit of a hiatus in the diet, so I will probably resume in January, just maintaining over the festive season. It has been basically veggies and small amounts of protein, with no to low carbs. I joined a sort of gym at the school, and after some nagging Jack is working out some as well, mostly on the treadmill.

We started cleaning out the schoolhouse this year, and spending heavily on bookshelves, but the results are really nice to look at, and give us hope that we may one day achieve our goal of joining the two buildings. It is going to be a long slog though. We never run out of projects that need to be done – does anyone????

We went to a country auction near Raton this year, and among other things Jack bought a horse drawn carriage, which he intends to hook up to my mangy mustang. I have told him to take both horse and carriage to a class next year, and they can learn together. Said mustang needs some discipline, and he really needs to work, so it will be good for them both. I love auctions, and I come home with the weirdest neat stuff. Last year I bought a large pair of plaster lions for the porch, which then had to live indoors so the weather would not destroy them, and this year I bought a very large canoe, which we will not be able to try out till spring, a pair of really good skis that will be just right for JJ in about 6 years time, and some really dirty ski boots that are actually his size in a separate lot. And four hard hats for Don Diego, that a guy let me have for free. The price was right!!!! We have no more room in our 60 foot garage, but always seem to be able to somehow squeeze in the latest acquisitions.

The music teacher at Mora schools has an ability to enthuse the students about music. This is the fifth grade band (all fifth graders). JJ is in the back row, near the left playing the French Horn and feeling very grown up in his father's favorite tie. Retention is good as he keeps above 10% in the band through high school. They also have an enrichment program run by parents (mostly one couple) funded by outside grants, not tax money. Last month they dissected owl pellets to identify the little bones and this month went to see The Nutcracker. I was very pleased to see positive reactions from all the kids, many of whom had no previous exposure to any like this.