THE Trip, Christmas Eve in Las Cruces New Mexico, A Most Delightful & Unique Experience

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On December 23rd, late in the day, as daylight was quickly retreating, a new rig pulled into the campground where we are staying.  They chose a rather difficult site to park/live in for the next 3 months and they were having considerable trouble maneuvering their large home on wheels into the site.  Eventually Man went out and helped some, I quickly introduced myself to the lady of the house, err, wheels.  Once they were safely parked, Man and I retreated to Tana, as it was getting dark and coolish.

Christmas Eve the campground set up luminaries and provided a Mexican Christmas holiday meal.

Just some of the offerings for the Mexican holiday
dinner offered by the campground.  There was also
soup, eggnog, tea and more.

After dinner Man stopped by our new neighbors to remind them of the good eats at the clubhouse, and within minutes we found ourselves invited to go with them to Mesilla to see that town's luminaries and participate in caroling in the town square.  What followed was 5 hours of fun, and laughter, in what turned out to be a unique and delightful Christmas Eve.

Gene and his bride, Daisy, newlyweds, aged 71 and 68, respectively, give or take a few years, are very familiar with Las Cruces, so Man and I soon had a private guided tour to the best that this area of New Mexico has to offer. 

A luminary at Mesilla:

Christmas caroling in Mesilla's town square.

Luminaries on the ground and on the buildings.  Candles
held by the crowd, song sheets, a family to lead in song.
Not seen in this photo, the gazebo and the town Christmas tree.

After several hours of enjoying Mesilla we decided we were chilled and hungry, so, we headed back to Las Cruces where we found a restaurant open, grabbed some food and hot drinks and Gene proceeded to tease, confuse and charm the wait staff.

After our refreshment stop Gene and Daisy took us for the cooks tour of Las Cruces on Christmas Eve.  Luminaries line the neighborhood streets, and of course, many of the homes are lit and decorated.  The photo below qualifies as "house with the most lights" in Las Cruces, and was even highlighted on the front page of the "Las Cruces Bulletin".  The owner decorates the house himself, has over 15,000 lights and a power bill for December of $400 to $500.

Man just had to have photos, so, he took the camera, jumped out of the truck and took a few snapshots, AND, ooops, lost his hat as well.

Next Gene took us through downtown Las Cruces and then to the west side of town.  Gene took us to a mesa, a plateau, where we got a spectacular view of Las Cruces at night.   (Ohh, this is a bit of a special place for Gene and Daisy, he proposed to her up on that mesa!)

The photo does not do justice, not even close.

This is when we discovered that Man had lost his hat. (MMM, Man loves this hat, it is warm and matches his jacket.)  Gene volunteered to take us back to that house and see if the hat was lying on the ground.  My goodness, clean back to the east side of town we went.

And, guess what, Man found his hat!  I missed the photo of him jumping up and down like a 3 year old kid. RATS!!

Over five hours after we left the campground we returned to find the luminaries here still burning, and we had had a wonderful evening with our new good friends Gene and Daisy. 

And, thus ended our delightful, unique and undoubtedly, an unforgettable Christmas Eve thanks to Gene and Daisy.

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