Christmas in Tehachapi

This year I celebrated Christmas with Mickey's family, who live in the Tehachapi mountains of southern California. It's a very pretty area, full of Ponderosa pines, old oak trees, lots of birds and other wildlife. There are many remnants of a Native American presence, such as depressions in the rocks where they used to grind corn. Surprisingly, grapes grow in the area. There is a small winery (Triassic Legacy) nearby that makes an absolutely delicious chardonnay.

We had lots of fun baking cookies, sipping margaritas, and watching the sci-fi channel. They were playing old Star Trek (Next Gen) reruns all day, and we totally got sucked in. They played the episode where the entire crew gets infected with a virus that makes them "devolve" - Diana reverts to a fish, Worf grows armored plates and attempts to mate with Diana, and then the humans turn into chimps. I'd forgotten what a great series that was. The next best thing on TV was the "Yule Log channel", which was - no joke - a video of a fireplace that ran all morning. Apparently one of the stations gave its employees the day off and slapped that video on! The funny thing was, occasionally a hand would appear and put a new log on the fireplace!

I posted some pictures below of Mickey's Mom and Dad. Below those a gift of plush microbes I received including MRSA, black death, E. coli, and a white blood cell (not a microbe). These will have to go over my desk at work - I need to give the WBC a couple of small plastic swords, and perhaps a Rambo bandana, to be posed in a stand-off with the other bugs! Next pic is the traditional Christmas dinner a la Fimbres - handmade tamales. Ladle some frijoles over them and they are FANTASTIC. Our trip concluded with a light snowfall - just enough to decorate the mountains in white lace, but not enough to make the drive home treacherous.