December 15-19, 2025: Prudence's Christmas Party in San Antonio
	November 23, 2025: My 79th Birthday
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We didn't do Thanksgiving in San Antonio last year because Prudence's kitchen was out of commission due to the complete renovation that she was doing. But this year, the kitchen is completed (and has been for a couple of months) and so it will get inagurated with a big Thanksgiving bash.

Getting to the Ruckman's House in San Antonio

You have probably seen an album page where we visit San Antonio, but in case you haven't, I want to show you the route to San Antonio from Dallas and where Prudence and Ron are located.

On the left-hand map below, you can see the normal route from Dallas down to San Antonio. Not much explanation is necessary; sometimes we take the bypass around Austin, but most times we don't, and the trip to the San Pedro exit in San Antonio is usually four hours plus. We head north on San Pedro Avenue a couple of miles and then either hang a left on Ashby and a right on Breeden or just a left on French to get to the Ruckmans' house on the northeast corner of Breeden and French.

At least that's the way we've traveled to San Antonio so many times over the years.

Lately, however, traffic- particularly through Austin and between Austin and San Antonio- has been horrendous. There are two reasons for this. One is simple: there are simply too many people and too many cars traveling on I-35, and not just here on the southern half of the interstate highway in Texas. I-35 is woefully under-constructed for the amount of traffic it is called on to carry. Everyone who routinely drives on this highway has thought to themselves that it should be not 2 or 3 lanes in each direction, but more like 5 or 6. The second reason is that legislators have heard these people, or had these feelings themselves, and so some modest expansion of the highway is ongoing. This construction has wreaked havoc on the traffic which continues unabated.

So recently it has become common for us to take a somewhat different route to get to San Antonio. At Temple, there is a short length of expressway badged as I-14 that leads west to Fort Bliss and Kileen, where it currently ends. It turns into simply a major two-lane highway until it intersects with US 281 at Lampasas. Then we turn south on US 281 and take it all the way down to the northern suburbs of San Antonio. The route goes through some towns, and there are a few traffic lights, but at least you are usually moving. Even if you don't save much time, it's more pleasant to be moving than to be inching along in traffic.

Eventually, US 281 goes under I-410, an expressway that we had sometimes taken over from I-35 when we came that way. We continue south, getting off at Mulberry. We take this west to McCullough, turn left and head south to Woodlawn, turn right and head west (crossing San Pedro) to turn left on Breeden, and then go just the few blocks to the corner of Breeden and French where Prudences's house is located.

In case you have not seen them, I have put below first an aerial view of the Ruckmans' house. It is the house on the corner, and behind it to the north is the three-car garage and apartment atop it. Father Guy used to live there before his order sent him to Mississippi. Now, Prudence's gallery assistant, Sara, and her husband rent it. Beside that aerial view is a view of the house itself. This picture was taken in 2010, and it is time for me to take a new one, as Prudence has made some changes to the front of the house.

Before Thanksgiving

We arrived in San Antonio on Tuesday afternoon after a particularly exhausting drive down from Dallas. Even getting off I-35 north of Austin didn't eliminate all the traffic around Waco and all the way down to Temple. Anyway, I wanted to have Wednesday to do my prep work for the turkey dressing and gravy.

(Picture at left) On Tuesday night, Prudence took us to Piatti, an Italian restaurant in The Quarry Market. As we were walking back to our cars after dinner, Fred took this picture of Prudence and I with the original quarry smokestacks (lit up for Christmas) as a backdrop.       (Picture at right) We usually get up and go with Prudence when she takes Jax for a walk over in San Pedro Park, and we did that Wednesday morning. Fred doesn't usually have his phone with him, but today he did and took a picture of this historical marker describing "The 9th Cavalry at San Pedro Springs".

Prudence's New Kitchen

In the Spring of 2024, Prudence brought Nancy's interior designer down from Dallas and they began work on planning for a total redo of her kitchen. Everything would be taken out and an entirely new kitchen, powder room, and pantry would be created. Once the plans were pretty much done, work began to demo the existing kitchen.

The project encountered more than its share of difficulties. It was discovered that to support the new kitchen, new footers had to be installed, and they had to run down through the basement and into the ground. The floor was found to be in even worse shape than had been thought, and entirely reworking them caused more delays. There were plumbing and electrical issues to deal with as well- not surprising when you consider the house is 125 years old. While the rest of the house had been updated when it was made into a bed and breakfast in 2000, the kitchen had been serviceable. But now, all these chickens came home to roost and there was no way that the kitchen would be finished for Thanksgiving, 2024, which is why we did not come down that year. In fact, the Ruckmans were without a functioning kitchen for more than a year- from late summer 2024 until late summer 2025. I would have been unable to deal with that, but since Prudence and Ron eat out almost all the time, they didn't need much more than the fridge that was moved to the dining room.

As the pictures at left and below indicate, the result of all that waiting, and all those issues that cropped up, was worth the wait and the difficulty. Prudence now has a kitchen that will work for her for as long as she cares to use it, and which has undoubtedly increased the overall value of the house a very great deal.

In the left-hand picture at left, you can see most of the features of the new kitchen. First of all, you can see the beautiful new cabinets, and there are many more around the kitchen, including a full pantry that is behind Fred as he is taking this picture.

As far as appliances are concerned, there is a microwave with an automatic slide out tray and controls inserted in the island at the very left of the picture. There is a new, double-door fridge with a huge amount of space inside and an icemaker that actually works now. I am standing at the new island, facing the dining room, which is where the cook would want to be to chat with guests. To my right are built in trash and recycle containers, and just to the my left, and to the left of the sink, is the new ultra-quiet dishwasher. Behind me is the combination convection/regular oven and gas range, and a new range hood that vents to the outside.

The right-hand picture was taken on Thanksgiving itself.

I found the kitchen to be great to work in as I did my prep work on Wednesday. Everything is within reach; everything is new; everything works.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

On Thanksgiving morning, when I had all my stuff ready to go and the luxury of some time while I watched Prudence work on her locally-famous mashed potatoes, I thought I would make a movie looking around the kitchen.

In the video, you'll see Prudence, of course, but also Kim and John. Kim and John were Prudence's good friends and houseguests for the holiday. They had driven in late Tuesday from their home in Phoenix. Fred and I have met them a couple of other times here at Prudence's house, and they go all the way back to bed-and-breakfast days.

Towards the end of the video, I'll also take you into the new powder room, but we'll talk more about that new room later. Use the player at left to watch this video.

I also have some still pictures of this magnificent new kitchen; the new person you'll see is Prudence's sister, Nancy:

All the pictures you've seen so far were taken from a point near the old (and also renovated) back door and mudroom, and are basically of the kitchen.

The powder room (first-floor bathroom) wasn't moved, but entirely renovated, and is now accessed from a short hallway off the kitchen (to my left as I was taking most of the pictures above. It's one of the few bathrooms I've been in that has a chandelier.

Now we can look in a different direction- towards the back door, and that is the view that you can see at right. Along the right side of the picture are some of the cabinet doors for the pantry. Prudence never had a real pantry before; they really had no place to store much in the way of non-perishable food.

This was a real problem when they had the bed and breakfast and even after that, and meant that Ron had to make pretty much daily trips to Costco or Sam's to get what he needed for his breakfasts. But now they have a huge fridge, a freezer in the basement, and a large pantry, so they're set.

The new kitchen layout has also given Prudence more wall space on which she can hang more of the large collection of artwork that she has. The back door is just to the left of the new stained-glass window that looks out to the back of the house.

The new kitchen and powder room are pretty amazing, and perhaps even more so was all the work that had to go into structural support, floor stabilization and leveling, electric, and plumbing. I am absolutely sure that Prudence and Ron are going to enjoy it more and more as the years go by.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This is perhaps the fifth year that we have done Thanksgiving here at Prudence and Ron's house, and it is always a pleasant, group activity, as everyone contributes. For my part, it seems as if everyone is enamored of the stuffing I make and the gravy I concoct, and they also like the pumpkin pies that Fred makes, so these (along with my sister's Classic Green Bean Casserole) are the contributions that Fred and I make.

The Layout in the Dining Room

I have to do the stuffing differently, though. Since Karl cooks the turkey at his house and brings it over to Prudence's, I have no opportunity to actually stuff the turkey. So I guess what I make is actually called "dressing", as it is cooked outside the turkey. I have to do the gravy differently as well, as Karl brings the giblets I don't have an opportunity to prepare them for the gravy, and since the turkey is cooking someplace else, I don't have the juices that I normally would to be the liquid for the gravy. But these are not insurmountable problems, so the dressing and gravy turn out pretty much as they do at my house.

The other change is to the green bean casserole; Ron (and everyone, I imagine) likes the french fried onions enough to want to double (or triple) the amount the recipe calls for.

Ron makes a salad, and Prudence makes some of the best mashed potatoes you've ever tasted, and Nancy brings a vegetable dish or two, so we have quite a spread, which gets laid on on the dining room table where Karl carves his turkey. Then the dinner is buffet-style and we eat in the sunroom.

In that beautiful glass room, Prudence can use her big table and a smaller one easily accommodate a dozen people, although this year there were just ten of us: Prudence and Ron, Nancy and Karl, Fred and me, Kim and John, Susan Riley (one of Prudence's artists who does the photo embellishments), and Mike (a very good friend of Ron's).

When Fred and I took pictures during the meal, we tried to get everyone in at least one picture, and I think we succeeded. Here are the the best of our Thanksgiving pictures this year:

People are serving themselves. From the left are Karl, Ron, Susan, John, and Kim.

Ron is doing some carving. From the left are Mike, Susan, Ron, John, and Kim.

Here are Susan and Fred in the dining room

Here are some of us in the dining room as some people are serving themselves. From the left are Kim, Mike, Ron, John, and Prudence.

And now for all of us around the sunroom dining table:

Here is the entire group (save Fred). From left are Kim, John, Prudence, Nancy, me, Susan, Karl, Mike, and Ron.

This time I am taking the picture, and from near left are Susan, Karl, Mike, Ron, Fred, Kim, John, Prudence, and Nancy.

I have to say that Thankgiving at the Ruckmans is always a treat, and I think this is due as much to the hospitality that Prudence and Ron show to all their friends and guests as to the food and the guests themselves, as enjoyable as it and they always are. We always thank Prudence and Ron for making us all feel so welcome.

The Trip Home

The trip home is up I-35. The traffic is not so bad because we are going through the most congested areas early in the day rather than in the afternoon, and we made the trip without incident. As we approached and went through Austin, I commented to Fred how much the downtown has changed since we first started visiting or passing it regularly. This prompted him to take out his phone and snap the four pictures below:

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 15-19, 2025: Prudence's Christmas Party in San Antonio
	November 23, 2025: My 79th Birthday
	Return to the Index for 2025