Christmas Eve Tucson Style

Ho Ho Ho Everyone.

It's Christmas Eve and all thru the Rig

Not a Doodle is Stirring

And I'm not a pig.

The stockings are hung on the fireplace with Care

In hopes Brother Paulie.. soon will be here.

The doggies are sleeping all snug on the floor

while slowly I slip

Cocktail in hand out the door.

Yes it's cocktail time!

Today was a work day.

We never made it out for any hikes.

We did however make a bunch of laps of the campground again with the doggies.

In the afternoon we headed out to do some last minute Christmas dinner shopping,

and I took a few photos of the shopping center.

This area must have some tough zoning laws...  Good for them.

All the shopping malls are hard to see as you pass them by as they seem to

blend into the landscape.

The view below is standing in the mall, looking across the parking lot to

Wallmart and several other stores.

You can hardly see them.

Here it is closer

Looking back across the lot towards the stores from where we came.

Best Buy and several other stores are actually hidden in there somewhere.

What is neat about this area is the "Dark Skies Ordinances"

There are several Observatories in the local area as well as thru out

the state due to the clear dry air, and in an effort to prevent light pollution

and preserve the beauty of the night skies, strict laws have been passed

regarding the types and uses of lights and signage.

You will drive right by a shopping mall at night and hardly know that it is there.

The lights must be focused down to the ground, with little leakage to the sides.

The end result is a parking lot that is light when you walk thru it - but that throws

very little light off to the sides or into the air.

Being from out of town, my first reaction was to think that the mall was closed as

it seemed dark.  It wasn't until I drove into it that I entered the light - albeit dimmer

than most places, but still sufficiently light.

Good Deal Tucson...  Keep those night skies beautiful!

We've dressed the Coach and the truck up for the holidays.

I'll get some photos of our new light show for tomorrows blog.

Tomorrow we have Texas Raisin Cinnamon Bread 

that we will use for French Toast for Breakfast.

We then will follow that up with a turkey dinner

with all the trimmings for our Christmas Dinner.

I think that we will need to do some extra walking the next few days.

In closing let me wish everyone a peaceful Christmas Eve, and send a special shout

out to Bobby and Lesley in Bequia West Indies.

One year ago tonight I shared Christmas Dinner with them aboard their

sailboat in Grenada having just arrived 2 days prior from sailing across the Atlantic

from Spain on the sailboat JaySeaDee.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve Dinner of Shepards Pie

washed down with some cold beers.

Bobby & Lesley know their way around the Galley.

On Christmas Day I flew home after being gone for about 6 weeks.

It was the best Christmas Present ever.