December 24-25, 2025: Christmas in Dallas
	November 25-29, 2025: Thanksgiving in San Antonio
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Prudence is planning a large Christmas Party for her artists and patrons this year, and instead of holding it at the gallery, she is going to take advantage of her new kitchen to have it catered at her house. She invited Fred and me to attend and, even though we'd just been there a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving, we were happy to come down and help if we could.

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. On previous pages, you've seen the house as it was in 2010, but it was high time I took a new one, as Prudence has made some changes to the front of the house, and I did so on this trip.

A Morning Walk with Jax

Prudence has a routine most mornings about eight, which is to take Jax for a walk over in San Pedro Park. The only time she doesn't do this is when Jax has already been taken to Lucy's (dog hotel) which Ron does a few times a week so that Jax can run around with a bunch of other animals.

We begin at Prudence's house, of course, walk south down Breeden to the Park, and then find a spot to cross Ashby to get to the park. There, we pick up the walk that winds around and through the park itself. I often let Fred and Prudence do this walk on their own, thinking that they can have some time to themselves, but I'm always invited to come along.

This morning I did come along, and thus we have some pictures from the walk. The first picture I took was of a new building going up on the north side of Ashby across from the park. The sign says it will be "Ashby Place", which, according to the sign, will be "Urban Living":

We reached the northwest corner of the park and then turned south, following the serpentine walkway. After a few hundred feet, we turn left and take a walkway that goes through the middle of the park.

Here are Fred, Prudence, and Jax walking south along the west side of the park.

Here at the point where Prudence cuts east through the park there is beautiful, old tree that makes a neat backdrop for pictures.

At left are a couple more pictures that we took at this very old tree before we started along the walk east through the middle of the park.

As we began walking east through the park, I made a short movie. In it, you'll see the building in the middle of the park that houses the locker rooms for the swimming pool that is fed by San Pedro Spring and which is open in the summer when the springs are running. Of course, you'll also see Prudence, Fred, and Jax. Use the player below to watch the movie:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

We continued the walk, following the route marked on the aerial view above and then eventually got back to the house. These walks are enjoyable but, as I said, I most often let Prudence and Fred have some time to themselves, as I often spend the day with Prudence at the gallery.

The Christmas Party

The whole reason for us making the trip to San Antonio this time was to help Prudence with her Christmas Party and then to attend it ourselves. Prudence had the affair catered at her house, which was nicely-decorated for Christmas. The party was on the 16th, and began about 6PM.

The party was a great success, and there were more than a hundred of Prudence's artists and patrons that attended through the evening. The catering was also amazing, and all the food served was very, very good. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Below, left are a couple of candid shots from the evening. The left-hand picture is artist Anne Gaynor posing with the bronze bear that Prudence purchased from another of her artists, Bob Guelich. Ron took the right-hand picture of Fred and me.

As for the many other candid pictures Fred and I took, I have put them in the slideshow below.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

To view the slideshow, just click on the image above and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

The Day After

The party was a smashing success, and the next day Prudence was fielding calls of thanks and appreciation. We spent some time at the gallery, and then the six of us went out to a very nice dinner at a restaurant out near Nancy and Karl. Back at the house, we were relaxing, and no one was more relaxed than Jax:

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.

We once again thank Prudence and Ron for their amazing hospitality. It won't be long before we see Prudence, Nancy, and Karl again as they will be coming up to Fort Worth on Christmas Eve and I will get a chance to return some of their hospitality as they will join Fred and I and others of our friends at my house on Christmas Day. Ron will be in Atlanta with his family.

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

	December 24-25, 2025: Christmas in Dallas
	November 25-29, 2025: Thanksgiving in San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2025