Christmas Day in Tucson

After present opening and listening to the new cd from The Capitol Steps, "Barackin' Around the Christmas Tree", we went to Sabino Canyon.  We weren't the only ones - could hardly find a parking space!  Look at all the people on the tram road!

For the 3rd Christmas  in a row we cooked "Cardamom Honey-glazed Roast Duck" on the rotisserie in the grill.  It was dark but I could stiil photo the turning duck.

And voilà (notice the spelling, Jil).

The recipe is from Arabesque, by Greg and Lucy Malouf.  It's one of my favorite cookbooks, although mine is the original version.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Present.

Christmas Past.

The zoo and the barn

Feeding the giraffe was great fun for Gus, but Faye wanted to keep the food for herself.

The horses at the barn weren't too interesting, but the tractor and the bobcat (motorized kind) were.

The Cape Cod McGuires visit Tucson!

As usual, morning started with coffee and Gus was very willing to help Grandpa Bart make coffee.

Faye loved Cactus, who proved to be a very tolerant kitty. 

There was daily swimming (I think the slide had warm water coming down).

Almost Complete

We re-arranged the living room and painted and recovered furniture.  The only missing pieces are 2 big pillow/cushions for the window seats - to make really good places to read.  They'll be ready in a couple of weeks.

Sorry, I forgot to make this one "large", but you can see the window-seat well.

Guess Who's in Tucson?

Who do you think all these people are waiting for?  This was the scene at Park Place Mall at about 4 pm Sunday.

Not the best picture in the world, but recognizable anway.  I guess when I get smiled at like this I get too excited to stand still. 

Lance is doing a 2-week training session in Tucson, with a book-signing appearance today at Border's.  It seems that Mt. Lemmon is good climbing practice..

Thanksgiving Pictures

Grandpa Bart took this great picture of Josie (and Dazzle) and Iz (and Annie).

I think this is simmilar to one of Jil's postings, but the next one was the first dress-up detail.

Catching Up (under threat of de-linking)

My last post was Oct. 24 and Wendy has threatened to de-link us from the Agreeable Sisters blog if there isn't some new activity for the Desert Grandparents. We had a great visit with Jerry Sawyer (of Jerry and Mary from Sunriver) November 13-15. Here we are during our 4 mile hike in Saguaro National Park (east)- can't see us too well, but that saguaro is pretty cool.

After the hike we went to Illusions Gallery and to the Tucson Art Museum to see an Ansel Adams exhibition. There were about 100 photos - many of which we had never seen. My favorite was the Golden Gate Bridge site, pre-bridge.

Here's the living room with both sofas finished - the window seats will be visible soon. Right now everything is moved all around for re-painting. Can't wait to see the new colors.

                                         I'll post pictures from Thanksgiving weekend next time.