Christmas in Hill Country

Christmas

50 years of LBJ State Park

This was the 50th anniversary and tree lighting celebrating Christmas at LBJ's Parks and quite an event. with 800 people attending.

One of our jobs was collecting cedar branches for the top of the manger for the live nativity scene. We thought it looked rather nice.

After the tree lighting ceremony, there were decorated trolley rides with a tour of LBJ's childhood Junction School lead by the National Park rangers.

My job that evening was to hand out brochures and let people know what was going on. When I told President Johnson's daughter about the trolley ride and directed her to the table to get a ticket, she declined and said she was here for the presentation. The superintendent quickly intervened and lead her away. Oops.

This was an extra shift to help out so once we got tired, we went home.

Sauer Beckman (Living History) Farm

After the tree lighting, the trail was lit up leading to the farm. 500 people lined up to tour the decorated home and get the volunteer made cookies. They are still offering us leftover cookies every time we have lunch at the farm.

 Daniel was hard at work doing his blacksmithing. 

The best part of the evening was sneaking down the path and sitting around the fire listening to the harmonica playing cowboy under the twinkling stars.

A stop along the path to the farm.

One of our daily walks.

Luckenbach, TX

Luckenbach is only 5 miles from Fredericksburg and has music everyday.

We enjoyed the fire and some very good music and stories on a cool morning.

We made the drive to Boerne (Bernie) for a visit to Quest labs for a blood draw. I asked the phlebotomist for a recommendation for breakfast since I had been fasting and it was 9:30 am. She suggested Bear Moon Bakery and their peach turnovers. Who am I to argue with a turnover in peach country? Why stop with a peach turnover? We added a Kuglehopf (a sweet yeast bread with raisin from Austria and Germany) when the lady in front of us in line to order said she always took one home after breakfast. Good thing we are 40 minutes away or this would become a problem for us. They were both amazing. Who knew Brussel sprout hashbrowns could be so good?

I have to go back in 6 weeks for another blood draw. Looks like a return trip to Bear Moon may be in order.

Guadalupe River State Park

The Guadalupe River State Park is near Boerne and our next stop. It has 4 miles of riverfront where you can swim, fish, tube and canoe. While on land, you can camp, hike, ride mountain bikes.

We were having a cold snap and the park was pretty empty. But the hiking trails were nice and easy through the woods and along the river. This is a place we could spend a little more time someday.

Floating the river on a warm summer day would be a real treat.

One more armadillo. Now to find an opossum.

We have had questions about what is involved in the volunteer positions here. 

The visitor center has set hours 10-2pm. On the farm they lead tours, take care of some of the animals, cook or clean along side the rangers.

 So far, we are pleased with our job as maintenance volunteers 3 days a week 7-11am, well maybe 730-10am unofficially some days. This is a day use park and the work for us varies each day. We get our daily walking in and get to visit the other volunteers on our rounds.