Christmas Celebrations

Merry Christmas from the May Family!
We started our off celebration with a
traditional holiday dinner, complete with
china, Christmas linens and all the trimmings.
The kids were totally impressed that
they got to drink out of "fancy glasses".
We followed dinner with the family service
at Church. Once we were all settled back
home, it was time for Christmas pajamas.
We spent Christmas day opening gifts, gifts
and more gifts! And then, we played, played
and played some more! It was hard being
away from our families for the first time
during a holiday but it was nice to spend
the day together. Just us four, enjoying
each other and starting our own traditions.
We truly are a blessed family. We wish those
same Christmas blessings to each of you! We
love and miss you all!

Check out the shrimp plate. That was
John's handiwork.

John carved our roast beast (actually
it was ham). Our favorite beast was
hoping for an early Christmas gift.


Hooray! Santa came!

Even Angelina was remembered by Santa, thanks

to a sweet letter written by Ian. Here she is enjoying

her very own stuffed animal...although it wasn't

stuffed for very long!

Grammy gave Jenna the My Little Pony Teapot.

She had quite the pony party! Thanks Grammy!

These are my mad scientists! One of Ian's gifts

was a Sci-fi Slime Kit. Here is the fruit of their

labor. This slime wiggled like it was alive. EEWW!

Happy Birthday John!

John's birthday is Chirstmas Eve and so we can't start our
Christmas celebrations until we do some birthday
partying! We met with his family for a web cam party and
they all sang the birthday song to him! It was great to see
them and it helped us to feel not so far away!

John doesn't have a sweet tooth so we didn't have

a birthday cake. But, you can't have a birthday

dinner without blowing out some candles, so we put

the candles in the bowl of guacamole.

Merry Christmas Morgan and Chelsea

These are my nieces, Morgan who is 5 (on the left)
and Chelsea who is 11 (on the right). Aren't they
beautiful! We would meet at Grammy's every
Christmas morning (in PJs) for presents, hugs
and breakfast. This year we are going to meet
sometime Christmas Day on the web cam and open
gifts then. No hugs but at least we can see them!
We miss them so much and were so excited to
get the newest Santa picture in the mail.

Merry Christmas Girls! We love you!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

By far the coolest thing about living
in New Mexico is the the SNOW! We
recently had a day where we had at least
2 or 3 inches. But since our back yard is just a
pile of dirt, Jenna and I played out front on
the sidewalk. (Poor Ian was at school)
Even Angelina loves the snow,
she rolls around in it any chance she
gets. Maybe we will have a white Christmas
this year!

Better duck! He has a great arm!

Peace, man!

The world's smallest snowman.

Is it my imagination or does this look like the

famous Nixon picture?

Our New (temporary) Home

I should have posted this first. A rookie mistake,
I guess. Here are a few pictures of the area around
our house and a few pictures of our home, before
the furniture arrived.




I made the mistake of leaving my windows open
during a fall windstorm. There were 20-30 mph
winds, which left a very thick coat of dust over
everything. Thick enough that I could write "I
love sand" in the dirt. I had just dusted everything
the day before.

Thankful for Thanksgiving!

The thing we were most thankful for this year is
that we are close enough to drive to Texas and
spend the holiday with my sisters and parents. And
to top it off, we were all thankful to spend more time
with "little" baby Evan, Amy and Allen's first baby.
Isn't he a cutie!!





Crazy Grandma...she was loving the Thanksgiving
snow! Not to mention having all of her grandkids
in the same place at the same time.


Catching snowflakes on thier tongues.

Big ole snowflakes.

Ian's class did a Thanksgiving play. He read a

piece on what it was like to live in a colonial city.

Afterwards, there was a feast. Our contribution to

the Thanksgiving feast was peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches (as if Ian would request anything else!)

Martial Arts

If any of you have known Ian for any amount
of time, you knew it was just a matter of time
before we enrolled him in some type of martial
arts. His school works in conjunction with a local
studio to provide after school classes. He studies in
the Budo-Taijutsu martial arts...and loves every
minute of it.


At the beginning of December, in was in a kicking
and punching marathon. He did 259 punches, 263 front
kicks and 233 combo moves. He earned a mood necklace
and two rubber chinese stars for his efforts.

On December 14, Ian took the test to move up

from a white belt to a 9th Kyu (degree) green

belt. The test took about an hour and they were

tested on knowledge of the terms/language, punches,

rolls, kicks, defensive moves and combo moves. He did

great. He was only corrected on three things. He

needs to have force behind his punches, kick

with his entire foot not just his toe and remember

to stand up in between his backward rolls. We were

very proud!!!

Halloween Haunts

In memory and in honor of mom #2, Sue Koenig,
who passed away last Halloween, I made a spooky
dinner on Halloween. I hope to make it an annual
tradition...just like Sue did. Sue always had the most fun,
most creative and most spooky food.
All who knew her, miss her.

One of our FL traditions was to spend trick or treat

night with the Forrer Family (John's sister Jennifer).

This was our first Halloween on our own since Jenna

was born. Ian was skullzor and "Jeepers" Jenna

was Daphne from Scooby Doo.

Dancin' Daphne

This scary boy can't be my sweet Ian.

Balloon Fiesta

To kick off the Balloon Fiesta, balloonists are sent to
elementary schools all over the area to lauch thier balloons.
This is one of the balloons filling up...at 730 in the morning.
The kids can touch the balloons and talk to the pilots. It was
really neat.

Our first major events as New Mexicans was the Balloon Fiesta. There were over 700 balloons launched during the mass assentions. They also have events at night where they light (but not launch) the balloons after the sun sets, followed by an incredible fireworks display. Each of you needs to find a way to come and visit during this time!