Another geocaching adventure

On New Year's Day, Dave and I headed to Albuquerque. Tim and Nikki were returning from their trip to Canada, and since we had to pick them up, we made a day of it, and spent the afternoon and evening with my parents. We also thought it would be a lovely opportunity to introduce my parents to the joy of geocaching.

When we first told them about geocaching, my mother in particular, thought we were very odd, and thought this was a rather strange thing to do, but after the first find, a movie cache where we left a vhs of X-Men and picked up a DVD of Nacho Libre, they were hooked.



We proceeded to a second cache not far from the first, hidden cleverly from view. Below, Dave uncovers the ammo box that held a myriad of small treasures.



And finally, we headed into the dessert west of my parents' house for a final search. Those of you who are not from New Mexico probably don't know what the dessert area of the West Mesa is famous for, so I'll have to tell you, Gentle Readers: dead bodies. Sad to say, but true, the West Mesa outside of Albuquerque has been home to something like 9 murdered women over the last year or so. It gave beating the bush out there quite a different feeling! But all we found was an attache filled with geocaching memorabilia. It was great fun!

Happy new year, one and all...

Tonight we celebrate the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010; the end of one decade of a new millennium, and the beginning of another.

Our "normal" crew of New Years Eve celebrators are all gone this year...some in Minnesota, some in Ontario, some in Virginia... and we have been invited to several other places, each of which will likely be enjoyable. But I am slightly melancholy about having the "old gang" all gone this year. New Years always tend to make me feel like I ought to be more introspective than I am, ought to have accomplished more last year, always a little melancholy.

So, Dave and I, the absolute worst decision makers in the world, don't yet know what we're going to do this evening to ring in the new year. Whatever we decide, I know he will be at my side, for which I am very grateful. He makes everything better, and continues year after year to be a tremendous blessing to me.

As you ring in the New Year, Gentle Reader, may the Lord bring blessing to you as you reflect on God's hand in your life over the last year, and the hope and promise of the next.

A post-Christmas Adventure

For Christmas, I gave Dave a GPS... yes, we are one step closer to entering the current century, though we are still resisting texting on our phones... We decided to make our afternoon walk into a little adventure by seeing if we could find a local geocache as we walked. For those of you who are uninitiated, geocaching is a fast-growing pastime, with over 5,000 caches listed in New Mexico alone, and dozens right here in Los Alamos county. A geocache is a sort of treasure hunt: someone hides a container, and inside it is a log where you list your name or initials if you find it. Some are tiny, some are larger and contain things, either things that stay there, or you take something and add something. We saw one listed that has books in it, and you take a book and leave a new one. Anyway, many caches are listed here, and we chose one just about a mile from our home. It gave us the GPS coordinates and a few hints, and we set off. Below, Dave is setting the coordinates of the place we want to find.

We hiked to the end of a near-by street, and then onto the first part of a little path, and found we were close, and began looking. This was a "microcache", meaning it was tiny, and we followed the clues given, and lo and behold, we found it! And it was tiny: a little magnetic case with a tiny water-proof case inside, and a small scroll for penciling-in your initials.

After we signed it, we replaced it where we found it, and continued our walk. Then when we got home, we recorded that we have found it.

So, this may be a way to make your little walks more adventurous, Gentle Reader. It was really a lot of fun!

Scenes from Christmas at the Brown's

Merry Christmas!

GLORIA IN PROFUNDIS
by G.K. Chesterton



There has fallen on earth for a token
A god too great for the sky.
He has burst out of all things and broken
The bounds of eternity:
Into time and the terminal land
He has strayed like a thief or a lover,
For the wine of the world brims over,
Its splendour is split on the sand.


Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed stars topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drowns all-
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who strives with the starry torrent,
When all that is good goes down?


For in dread of such falling and failing
The fallen angels fell
Inverted in insolence, scaling
The hanging mountain of hell:
But unmeasured of plummet and rod
Too deep for their sight to scan,
Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.


Glory to God in the Lowest
The spout of the stars in spate-
Where thunderbolt thinks to be slowest
And the lightning fears to be late:
As men dive for sunken gem
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,
The fallen star has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.

Christmas hath a darkness...

Christmas hath a darkness;
Brighter than the blazing noon;
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
~Christina Rosetti

A busy, blessed weekend

We enjoyed time with family and friends all through last weekend. Tim and Nikki arrived on Friday, and we enjoyed our time together! We opened presents, dragging out the fun of gift-giving, and laughing together as we did so. Below, Tim is opening some battery-run shower clocks: you put them in your shower using little suction cups. Those of you who know him well will know why that was a brilliant gift for him!



We made sugar cookies and enjoyed icing them.



Every year we take the little scraps of dough left-over and make the initials of all present. Dave did a masterful job of decorating them this year... he even used tweezers for candy placement! So, Mum, Pops, Tim, Nikki and Grandma got a special diminutive treat!



Our community of White Rock (which is sort of a suburb of Los Alamos if you can imagine such a thing, Gentle Reader!) has a large, white rock at its major intersection (yes, there is only one major intersection). This acts as a sort of community grafitti spot, and gets repainted for all sorts of occaisions. Tim and Nik painted it for Emily and Ryans's engagement, as Emily had painted it for theirs. And we had a wonderful time trying to get her to the rock to notice! Here are the artists with their work:



And here is the happy couple, once we finally got them to the rock after several failed tries:



It was a delightful weekend! And now Tim and Nikki are safely in Ontario, Emily and Ryan are back in Virginia, Ben and Elsa are in Minnesota, and our house seems so very quiet. And yet, Christmas is coming with its palpable promise, and God has blessed us richly, so there will be no complaining from my mouth!