The Family Tree
Volume 11, Number 9 December 2004
A Publication of the SunTree Travel Club
SunTree Travel Club is an affiliate of The American Association for Nude Recreation
(AANR), AANR-West, the International Naturist Federation
and The Naturist Society

Thought for the Month:
Definition: Conservative - One who wishes to keep the same old crooks in office
Liberal - One who wishes to replace the old crooks with a new batch of crooks

The SunTree Traveler

What Happened in November

This event certainly pointed out the need for all who attend SunTree events to make sure that they follow the advice in the newsletter to make reservations as early as possible. Some of our club showed up with no reservation, yet were accommodated by the Faywood Staff. Some of the non-SunTree people who showed up with plans to camp had to be turned away. The next event of this nature (rented facilities) is the February ski trip. Facilities will be chosen based upon the numbers who inform us of their planned participation.

A great pre-Thanksgiving weekend at Jardin del Sol
On the Sunday prior to the SunTree event at Jardin del Sol in Marana, Arizona, I got in my car to go get a copy of the Sunday paper. When I backed out of my garage, I noticed enormous white fluffy flakes falling on my windshield. There were very many of these white thingys, not just a few. By the time that I got to the end of my block, my windshield was so obscured by these flakes that I had to turn on those wipey things that clean off the windshield (remember them?). The condition changed to rain (remember that?) within a short time. The upcoming trip to Jardin del Sol came to my mind. I know that Marana tends to have warmer weather than we do in Las Cruces, but I decided that I need to plan on wearing shoes (I remember seeing them once. They are alternates to sandals and worn by people who are too shy to have bare feet.) to Marana for warmth.

All worries were dispelled when we got to the beautiful Arizona club. We showed up for the weekend that the Jardin del Sol members had their Thanksgiving potluck (did I say a magic word in the SunTree language?). The Jardin del Sol members welcomed us with enough warmth to overcome the dread generated by those white flakey things back home.

The meal was wonderful, as were the people. There were participants, in addition to those from SunTree and JdS, from the Arizona Wildflowers, the Arizona Buffeters, the Canyon State Naturists and visitors from Pennsylvania, Washington (state), Ontario, Alberta (and probably some that I missed). I did not count the numbers, but I think that there must have been 50 or 60 folks there and SunTree probably constituted one of the larger delegations of visitors. Let’s do it again!

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Events This Month

The "Between the Holidays" SunTree event
Once again, the SunTree members are being welcomed for a "between the holidays" event that will be held at the home of one of our member's in Elephant Butte, NM.

This will start on Saturday, 11 December with a planned potluck (Thanksgiving - Christmas) meal.

All attendees are being asked to bring a gift for an exchange. The gift should be worth no more than $5.00. When you select your gift, make sure that it is appropriate for someone of the same sex as you, yourself (mark the gift as a male or female gift). These will be distributed, at random to appropriate recipients.

This is always a fun event and well worth your attendance efforts. Contact SunTree if you think that you would like to attend. 

An Announcement from The Naturist Society

Another Naturist Calendar, but this time it is from our own organization. Here is the announcement:

Be a Naturist for all Seasons with The Naturist Society's first-ever calendar, a 25th anniversary salute to naturism, TNSn-style. A great gift, a great sale item, and a great way to show your naturist colors. There will be a limited supply of Naturist Calendars this year. If you want one call The Naturist Society at 800 886 7230 or visit the website at www.naturistsociety.com

December Celestial Events

Planetary Highjinx and Meteoric Happenings
Saturn will be the "star" of December (and January 2005) in the evening sky. At the beginning of the month, the bright Saturn will rise about 8 PM. That means that it will not get high in the sky until late. By the middle of the month, it will rise by 7 PM. It will evolve through the month, becoming brighter and telescopically larger as it heads for its mid-January position directly opposite the sun in its apparent position in the sky of mere Earthling (most of the SunTree members live on Earth, judging by their mailing addresses). This brightness will increase into minus magnitude (Remember that magnitude is like a golf score - the smaller it is the better [brighter]. It is rare that golfers get negative par, but planets attain it often and it should be celebrated). This brightness will increase until 13 January, but more about that in the next newsletter.

In the morning sky, Venus is the queen of the morning sky this month. Remember last month when Saturn and Pluto put on their dual performance in the morning sky? As is usual with Venus, she had to try to outdo that performance. On the morning of 5 December, she teams up with Jupiter on the eastern horizon about two hours before sunrise. Apparently Jupiter will be happy to team up with anybody for these performances. Everybody knows that as impressive as Jupiter is among the Solar family, he is only an enormous Gasbag.

Venus already has planned an encore to the early month performance. She has plans for another dual performance for preparation for New Years. She will be teaming up with little Mercury with performances every morning starting on 29 December through the New Year. What a showoff.

The Moon will also play a few games this month in both the morning and the evening sky. Early (9 December) month, the crescent moon will rise in a one-day performance with Venus and Mars. On 27 December, the almost full moon will be frolicking in the evening sky with Saturn around 7 PM. Saturn will be the very bright spot just below the moon. At the same time, that (not quite as bright as Saturn) spot just to the left of the moon will be the star Pollux. As you probably remember, that is the brighter of the two Gemini twins. His twin brother, Castor is just above him that night.

Now for the news that the SunTree gang who plan to participate in the Elephant Butte "Between-the-Holidays" Event are waiting for; that elusive Geminid meteor shower. There is good news and not so good news for this year's performance. The good news is that the sky will be (for all practical purposes) moonless and dark enough to get a good view of the shower. This years shower is predicted to be a reliable one-a-minute, all night show. As we know, however, predictions for meteor showers are not very reliable.

The not so bad, but certainly not great news is that the Geminid meteors have decided to wait until after the SunTree event for their major performance night. They will be on stage on the night of the 13 - 14. The peak should be in the early morning hours of 14 December.

Winter and the longest night of 2004 arrives with the solstice on 21 December at 3:42 MST even though the year's earliest sunset occurs two weeks earlier (nobody ever seems to inform the sun of the schedule).

Full moon on Boxing Day, 26 December (Cold or Long Night Moon)

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