Shopped Out in Tucson

Hola to All..................Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent it with our children in Colorado and had a great time cooking a turkey and all of our favorite foods in our daughter's apartment kitchen, and playing our favorite card game, Michigan, for hours.
Now, we are in Tucson, and after 2 days we are (mostly window) shopped out at Michael's, Target, Home Depot and Starbucks and Barnes and Noble and the Bead Shop. As I look around the hotel room, I don't see too many bags or packages and that is good................because now I must begin the list again.

This morning we will go to the storage unit, where we have several of our antique chests stored and load those up. We will also get the huge hanging mobile (which Bill made for KD when she was born). We have taken it apart and it should fit nicely in the truck cab. We plan to hang it under the portal someday.
The drawers of the chests are filled with odds and ends: little leggo sculptures, little ceramic hand sculptures, more playmobil ponies that Ian used to try and ride when he was little.............stuff like that, things I could not bear to part with. Some rolled paintings, two small painted canoe paddles from the Snoqualmie tribe, a map of the Minnesota Iron Ore Range, a small painting done by Elione', an African elephant, and a few books and photo albums and Christmas things are also in the drawers.
I have the list going and it should only take one peppermint mocha to complete it.

A few emails from friends have brought up the recent volleys of gunfire at the Mexican borders. We are always as safe as we can be......... we cross at the Mariposa border, which is a considerable distance from the downtown centro Nogales border crossing.
I have the list and if we do get red lights and whistles and buzzers, we try to make it as easy as possible for aduana to look at whatever they need, so we can be on our way. My posts regarding border crossings may be humorous, but we understand the seriousness of it.
On our drive to Alamos, there are always numerous federale checkpoints, where the military has the option to check passports or visas or cars. These can appear scary, as the men are all carrying automatic weapons and have straps of ammunition over their shoulders. Many of them are hidden behind blinds and all we see are weapons sticking out of the camo.
The military is very strong here and busy doing their jobs to protect their country.
Bottom line, we feel safe in Mexico and safe in Alamos.

We are off to San Carlos for the night and home to Alamos tomorrow. Once home, we will begin the roof. I cannot wait to tell you about it because there is a new plan underway. This means I will not have to make 1,000 cement placas. Do you understand how exciting this is???????