It's not Christmas without pfefferneuse...

...at least that's what my son said the other day.

I make these little German Christmas cookies every year just before Christmas. They are John's favorites; every Christmas of his life he has had pfefferneuse, baked by his mom. Early in our marriage I began using her recipe, and so the tradition goes on annually. (I don't like them myself, but traditions are traditions.)

Yesterday I made this year's batch of pfefferneuse:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, at least our tree is finally up.

Last year we had a whole lot of fun going into the Pecos Mountains to cut down out Christmas tree. This year for several reasons -- our late Nov.-early Dec. trip to Texas and because of lots of snow up in the mountains when we got back -- we had to change the game plan and buy a Christmas tree from a lot in Santa Fe.

We found a really nice noble fir, but the prices for cut Christmas trees has become very high. Next year we will be back up in the mountains picking out a $10 tree from the National Forest Service.

Last year's tree was ten feet tall, so this year's 7 footer looks a lot smaller in our living room with the high ceiling.

Anyway - our house is finally beginning to look Christmas-y and I still have some more decorations to get out today.

Chimney guard dog

Santa Claus may have some trouble getting down THIS chimney...

Countdown to Christmas.

These are busy days. Since my return from Texas last week, I am in the usual wild and crazy Christmas rush -- trying to get shopping done; gifts wrapped; packages ready to mail; and cards,letters, and annual Christmas letter done. Decorating the house and baking Christmas recipes will have to come after all the out of town stuff is taken care of.

My goal is to have a major rush to get everything done this coming week, so that the week of Christmas can be slower and more enjoyable and we can get out around town to enjoy the wonderful decorations and partake of the holiday spirit. Santa Fe is a great Christmas town and I don't want to miss it.

Anyway, I posted all this to say that I am going to be scarce around the blog for the next couple of weeks, but as soon as I get some good holiday pictures of Santa Fe, I will be back to post them.

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season as it unfolds.

(The above pictures were taken in Plano, Texas when I was there in late November.)

Our beautiful mountains

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains at Santa Fe are snow covered this morning after our first big snowfall of the winter last night.

Snowy day on Interstate 40 from Tucumcari to Cline's Corners

Wednesday night we spent the night in Tucumcari, NM on our way home from Texas. Cold night but clear skies.

The next morning we woke to 4" of snow on the ground, and heavy snow falling. We heard that the interstate was in bad shape with accidents and traffic backed up for 8 miles due to a wreck.

Cancel our travel plans until the weather cleared ... or press on? John is a good snow driver - we decided to continue our trip home. It took us an hour and a half sitting in line just to get onto I-40, and then progress was really slow, just creeping along on terrible road conditions, with snow falling and blowing hard and being surrounded by 18 wheelers.






It took us 4 hours to make the two how trip to Cline's Corner's where we stopped for lunch before the final part of the trip from Cline's Corner's to Santa Fe. Amazingly the road north was clear, which was a great relief considering the morning we had already experienced. It was so great to be home!

The new addition to our family

I've been out of New Mexico for almost two weeks ... in Texas where my first grandson was born on November 24. He weighed 8 lb. 8 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. His name is Alessandro. He is welcomed by his Mommy and Papa and his big sister Victoria, who thinks her little brother is pretty neat.







We returned to New Mexico today. It's good to be home, but I sure do miss those little kids, and already can't wait to see them again.