We arrived in Las Cruces on the 23^rd of December and spent Christmas Eve decorating the motorhome. It didn’t take us long since it’s only a small tree, a couple of wreaths, and a Santa carved out of a wood log. I remember when we owned the S&B, it would take us a week, between the inside and outside. I much prefer how we do it now.

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We made reservations for Christmas dinner at Guardunos Restaurant inside the Hotel Encanto. They had seating’s at 1:30 and 3:30, with a limited holiday menu.

We both started out with mushroom soup, and Debbie chose the Sea Bass with risotto and asparagus, and I had the Filet Mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. For dessert Debbie had Capirotada (Mexican bread pudding) and I chose the red velvet cake. 

The food was ok, unfortunately it didn’t appear as though the staff had much experience with holiday meals, and by the time they got their act together and started bringing out the food, it was lukewarm. Definitely not worth the $45 per person price tag.

Jenna and Emily flew out to visit us for a few days. Seeing both of them really made our Christmas special. Our first night together we went to the Pecan Grill and Brewery. If your ever in Las Cruces, make sure you try this place. The food is spectacular. I highly recommend the Pecan Crusted Salmon.

The next day we went to the Mesilla historic town square, where we did a little tourist shopping.

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We then drove out to White Sands National Monument. On our way there we had to go through the border checkpoint. I still don’t understand why there’s a checkpoint so many miles north of the actual border

Unfortunately, White Sands was closed due to the government shutdown. However, we were able to park on the side of US 70, close enough for Jenna and Emily to get over the fence that was buried in the sand, so they could check out dunes.

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That evening, we went over to the Airbnb that Jenna and Emily rented for a fantastic home cooked meal and exchanged our presents. It was a great day.

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I had to work on Friday, so the “girls” went for a driving tour of El Paso that night we went to Lorenzo’s Italian Restaurant for dinner. Another Las Cruces restaurant I highly recommend. 

The next morning, before the girls left for their flight back east, we had breakfast at A Bite of Belgium. If you like waffles, this place should go on your list. I had the Corned Beef Hash and it was fantastic.

Sad to see the girls go, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to hook up when we’re back east, and who knows maybe spending time together during Christmas will become a tradition.

Last year during Christmas and New Year we were in Savannah Georgia. On New Years day we drove around the Bonaventure Cemetery, the cemetery that became famous when it was featured in the book “Midnight in the garden of good and evil”. This year, on a recommendation from Jenna, we went to the City of Rocks State Park in Maywood. 

What an awesome place. We had a great time driving through the park and checking out all of the boulders. A really cool place. Thanks Jenna!

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After this short work week, we’ll be continuing west towards Arizona. We’re stopping for a week in Benson (have to work) and then on to Casa Grande where we will be parked until mid-April. It will be interesting since we have not been parked in one location for that long since we began our journey. We’ll see how that works out.

Hopefully the weather is better in Arizona since it has snowed a couple of days while we’ve been in Las Cruces. (I still hate the snow)

Until then