Living Desert Outdoor Museum-illuminated tonight

Tonight we went up to the Living Desert, an outdoor wildlife park with native desert animals that live there. As it was night we didn't see them except the ones in a small show they organized, but the whole park was illuminated with 300,000 Christmas lights, there was also a carousel for the children and their parents to ride, and cocoa and other hot drinks.

It was a great site, very pretty, it had huge train sets on tracks that wound up and down small hills, little villages, and various activities for kids to do, such as art projects like makings rubbings of the local animals in the park. Lots of the things illuminated were the desert animals outlined in lights. And many of the bushes and trees were covered with lights. Lovely.

Earlier that day we went to see Avatar the movie, it was really good. We had no idea what to expect, but the story was interesting, and the special effects incredible. Sigourney Weaver was one of the main actors, together with a young man we didn't know. The large blue Navi's were a neat concept. It was very long but the time flew by. Another James Cameron success, block buster.

In the morning Lary and I went back to the RV park and he did his wood carving. His kildeer bird is coming right along.

The day before we had gone back so I could do my watercolor painting class, we did a cactus desert scene.

Forgot to say that a few days before we had gone to Eisenhower Hospital for a 2 hour harp concert, it was lovely. Both harps and flutes are thought to be very therapeutic. The harp players were all past cancer patients. Our class leader Annie Mathias and Fran a student of hers did a duet on their flutes. The concert was held in the lobby of Eisenhower Hospital and it was lovely.

The new computer is up and going, and fast. Staples sold it to us, and loaded everything in it. We now need to dispose of the old one, they wiped it clean.

Our cousin from the coast isn't coming to Palm Springs now, it's too cold for them to swim and sun, so we'll see her another time in the spring.

So many places are lit up here, the Christmas lights are very pretty when you go out at night.

Yesterday there were very high winds, and the sand gets kicked up in the wind, driving in the blowing sand is next to impossible, you can't see a foot ahead of yourself, and today 3 major roads were closed due to sand drifts, but they were opened later on today.

We plan to go out to a botanical garden tomorrow if it's open, and on Christmas Day we will likely go to one of the casinos for a buffet lunch or dinner. Many of the restaurants will be closed for Christmas day.