BACKYARD, BLACKBIRDS, BABIES AND BAPTISMS

We have had a very fun filled past two weeks. In our "Golden Years", we've taken up bird watching instead of getting a cat ;-)

Our backyard is now like an aviary thanks to Frank's expertise at hanging up and filling bird feeders.

As you can see, we have all sorts of birds and they seem to get along together fairly well. There is a whole flock of dove that visit us daily,

and we have now had a wonderful addition to our flock, the red winged blackbird. They are truly beautiful and there are several that frequent our feeders daily.

Papa even hung a finch feeder and the most beautiful little golden finch comes there several times a day to eat his fill of birdseed.

We also have the unwanted squirrels that love to get on the feeders and eat more than their fair share of the seed ... especially the bits of corn that are there.This is a great past time and our kitchen is condusive to watching all the birds and squirrels since we have all the large windows across the back of the house.

I have finished my study of Islam and I must say that it was very interesting and also very disconcerting. Until we had this study at the book club at church I knew nothing about this religion. I now may know more than I bargained for, but it was a fascinating study.

With the holidays behind us, we are now studying another book by Anne Rice entitled "Christ the Lord, The Road to Cana".

I don't think that I have mentioned that when we were in Israel on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Bishop Kelshaw several years ago, Frank and I renewed our wedding vows in a church in Cana. It was a very special time in our lives and one we'll always remember. Being able to follow in the footsteps of Christ is something that is indescribable and I'm so glad that we did this. Our lives changed drastically as we could see pages out of Holy Scripture unfold before our very eyes. What a blessing!

We have also been attending a lot of parties lately. Our friends, the Minshew's, had a wonderful party to introduce their daughter's fiancee.

The photo above is of them when we were all in Santa Fe together last year. Their daughter is beautiful and will make a lovely bride. Frank was very impressed with her "intended" as he is also an Aggie. He's a handsome young man and we wish them both well when they begin their lives together in the spring.

We also went to a dinner party at our friend Carol's house.

The "gang" was there and after a delicious meal, we played a table top game that was a lot of fun. It's always nice to be surrounded by good friends, good fellowship and good food. Three of my favorite things in life.

The next day we went to an Open House that our Bishop and his wife, Donna, gave .

We have been friends with the Ikers for many years. In fact, we met Bishop Iker and his wife, Donna, about 18 years ago when he was the Rector of a parish in Sarasota, FL and we were traveling with Bishop Michael Marshall as Ministry Consultants for the Anglican Institute which was then based in St. Louis. He was just a baby back then and such a personable young priest.

We had no idea at the time that we would be blessed one day to have him as the Bishop of our Diocese!

We received a New Year's card from my friend, Young Woo, who is also an artist as well as an architect. He always does a painting of one of his grandsons on his card. This year it's Galen who has just turned 14.

Young and I met when we were both on a trip to Egypt and Italy to study photography with Lisl Dennis. That's been nearly 25 years ago now and he, Frank and I keep in close touch. He now has a home in Santa Fe (as well as Beverly Hills and London), so we see him every summer. He's an excellent artist and also a very good "retired" architect. He's in the process of building a home for his son as we speak. Here is a rendering of it.

Last Sunday on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, we had two very special baptisms at our parish. Two of our young priests have new babies and they were each baptised by their fathers on this special day. Here is Father Matkin with his new daughter, Madeline,

and below are the two young families with the newest members of God's family at St. Alban's.

It was a glorious time as baptism's are so special. Each one of us as members of the Parish renew our baptismal vows when we welcome a new member to the fold. Melisa, Father Matkin's wife, made Maddy's Christening dress. She looked like a little doll and the blanket that she is lying on is just like the one that I knitted for Franklin for his Christening 45 years ago. I still have it and each of my grandsons and my granddaughter had it wrapped around them when they went to the church to be baptised. It has become another one of those Salazar traditions. I also have the dress that our eldest son, Jim, was Christened in, and all of the children and grandchildren that followed wore it at their baptism's as well.

We will be leaving for California soon and I'm really excited about this. We will start out in Newport Beach where we will stay in a condo for a few days.

One of the these reasons I'm excited is that we will be seeing old friends that we haven't seen for a long time while we're there. One of our friends lives in Upton, CA, and we hope to be having either lunch or dinner with him and his wife one day while we're there and then we're going to see a long time friend and classmate of mine that we haven't seen in over 20 years. It will truly be a reunion and I'll send a full report when we return.
From there we will be going to LA and will visit with our friends, the Lassleys.




If you remember, we met them when we went to China a year and a half ago and then we all cruised together in Scandinavia. We're really looking forward to our visit.
I have finally been painting again and here is my latest piece. It's a surprise for someone special ... (more details later)

Guess I'd better go and start breakfast for my honey. He has a meeting at the Diocese this morning so I want him to have a hot meal before he leaves. Have a great week.

XOXO, Pcasso

NEW YEARS EVE, PARTIES, REDBIRDS AND EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY!

I don't know about you, but when a holiday falls in the middle of the week, ever day after that always seems like Sunday to me.

We went over to Franklin and Beth's Christmas day, enjoyed coffee cake and a little visit, and then came home, put on our jammies and watched movies that we received for Christmas. It was nice and quiet at our house, quite a change from excited little boys and their new gifts. It was the perfect way to spend the rest of the day.

The next day was Friday, so we decided to go to a movie. I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan since he ventured into Scientology, but we went to see Valkyrie which is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II, depicting the July 20, 1944 plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

If I understand it correctly, this film is based on fact and it is excellent. I'm also not a fan of war films but this one was very intense and extremely well acted with an excellent cast. I highly recommend it.

Sunday was church as usual and we had breakfast with the group afterward. We won't talk about the last Dallas Cowboy game as it was a total disaster. All I can say is that they better do better than that next year since they'll be in our new stadium.

I took it easy the first part of the week, reading a couple of books and enjoying the fireplace and the lights on the Christmas tree. One of the books was entitled "The Middle Place" and it was very good.

The Middle Place is about being a parent and a child at the same time. It is about the special double-vision you get when you are standing with one foot in each place. It is about the family you make and the family you came from and locating, navigating, and finally celebrating the place where they meet.

If you go to this link it's my favorite. Kelly Corrigan The next link has more details but the first one is what got me interested in the book after I had seen the video. http://www.kellycorrigan.com/themiddleplace/videos.php

you can hear her tell about the times and trials she has had. She's an excellent speaker and I highly recommend the book to all mothers and daughters and well as to the men so they can better understand their wives, mothers and daughters.

The other book I read was called The Christmas Sweater and it was given to me by a very dear friend. It's a great read any time but especially around Christmas.

Before I knew it, it was New Year's Eve (after all, we had had 3 Sundays this week ;-)

And speaking of our breakfast group, we started off New Year's Eve with a dinner party at one of the member's house. We have been going to breakfast with them after church for many years and we can all party with the best of them!

The men in this group have what they jokingly call the Friday Prayer Meeting and they go for lunch, fellowship and also a few beers on occasion. It's a great break for them to get away from the girls for a while. When we lived in Raton Frank belonged to to group that was called the "Friday Do Nothing Club" and this is a little more of the same Texas style.

Some of our former Gourmet group met at Pat Rico'ts lovely home for our annual New Year's Eve party.

There we so many people there that it was impossible to take photographs, so we just enjoyed the good friends and fellowship.
It got to be nearly 10:00 p.m. and we had one more stop to make to celebrate the coming of 2009 and the leaving of 2008. These people are also friends from church and Frank and Nasser are fishing buddies as well as friends. He and his wife, Jody, are wonderful hosts and we had a good time at their home as well.









One of the guests had brought a decanter which is called a Peron (not Eva ;-) and everyone tried to drink sparkling grape juice from it without drowning. That was pretty tricky and you could get soaked if you weren't careful, hence the towel!

As you can see, everyone was relaxed and having a great time.







The midnight hour was approaching and so we were all watching the television waiting for the Ball to drop at Times Square.





The men were starting to get tired of waiting, so they decided to pose as a group. Don't they look handsome!





When the midnight hour finally arrived, we drank champagne, ate blackeyed peas for good luck in 2009 ,

and the "boys" put on their coats since it had gotten very cold outside and they shot off fireworks to welcome in the New Year. Frank didn't have a coat and the one they loaned him wasn't quite as good a fit as his would have been!






We were home by 12:30 and were exhausted since we had started "partying" at 6:00 p.m. We had had a lovely time everywhere we went and were looking forward to a nice quite day on New Year's when we could sleep late and just be couch potatoes. WRONG!!
At 5:03 a.m. the alarm went off. We were dead to the world and didn't know if we were being robbed or what. It's very frightening, especially when you are asleep, to hear that alarm go off! The alarm company called us and said that the alarm indicated that there was a fire. Until they called, I told Frank NOT to go in the front part of the house without a gun in case someone was there. After they called we started looking for smoke and thought we smelled something burning. It's amazing how rampant your imagination can run when the suggestion has been placed there! To make a long story short, we got the alarm turned off, checked everything in as well as out, and there was no fire and no intruder. Needless to say, it was now not easy to go back to sleep! I finally did, but poor Papa stayed up.
There is a plus side to the New Years Day story. When we finally got up, we went into the kitchen for breakfast and were greeted by all kinds of birds on our yard.





As we looked more closely, we saw this beautiful red bird who was saying good morning to us on the first day of the new year.

There seems to be a whole family of Cardinals as well as Blue jays, Sparrows and even Finches.

They were all eating so fast and furiously that Papa had to put up more feeders and he has refilled them several times.

We even have dove along with squirrels that keep us entertained.

Our backyard is like an outdoor aviary. We love it!

Well, it's nearly Happy Hour, so I'll say goodbye for now. I hope that your new year will be filled with fun, friends and surprises.

With love until then ...Pcasso