Christmas 2009 in Silver City

A White Christmas in Silver City, New Mexico

This year my family and friend Efrain spent Christmas in Silver City, New Mexico. My family is from there, and my parent's house is a little more comfortable for a large number of people than my one bedroom apartment.

When driving from Albuquerque to Silver City, one has two main options. One option is to cross the mountains through NM 152 and drive through Hillsboro on the east, the black range of mountains, and then come out in Mimbres on the west and continue on to Silver City. The other approach is to continue south on I25 until Hatch, take the NM25 through Hatch and to Deming, then take NM 180 up to Silver City. Both routes take approximately the same amount of time if the speed limits are heeded, Hatch-Deming can be much quicker if you choose to speed.

Going through the mountains is a much more scenic and pleasant route, but passing through the flatlands of Deming and Hatch has a significant advantage - Deming has a country club which my family can play handball at! One of our favorite things to do as a family is to play handball. I got into town a little bit late to play on the way in, but we were able to play on Christmas Eve.










Here is one short video of my mom verses Alan. Additional, longer videos are coming soon.


In total, Alan Gast, Colleen Stinar (my mom), Donald Stinar (my dad) and I played in Deming this time. Efrain wanted to stay in Silver City and work on a welding project, so he wasn't able to make it. Autumn Stinar (my sister) was working at her new job at the Javalina Coffee Shop, located in downtown Silver City.

Autumn M. Stinar working away

Numerous Patrons of the Coffee Shop

My family also likes to eat sandwiches from Diane's Bakery Sandwich Shop, also located in downtown Silver City. Outside the sandwich shop, the entire block was transformed from a somewhat run down industrial district into a beautiful commercial area with about four different eating establishments.

Frozen Fountain in Downtown Silver City

Efrain R. Grijalva at My Family's House

One of the nights in Silver City, my family went to eat dinner at Isaac's, also located downtown. We saw our friends the Kellerman's. Travis Kellerman was visiting from Albuquerque and his mom Karen and father Harry retired to Silver City.

Travis Kellerman - Albuquerque Politico at Isaaic's in Downtown Silver City

Efrain R. Grijalva - Low Light Conditions at Isaac's

I also spent a lot of time working on backups at my parents medical office. My father has all of his patient records stored electronically, and I am his system administrator. Performing a test restore on a new server is important, but not something that many would consider interesting.