Yes, it's late January, but we just took down our tree, and our Christmas lights are still up outside. It still feels seasonally appropriate for a Christmas post.
For various reasons, it was hard this year to get into the Christmas spirit leading up to the holiday. I wasn't sure we were even going to get a tree. As you can see, we did! We made the house as festive as we could, and tried to soak up the festive spirit, keeping up the decorations longer than we usually do.
Oh my gosh. This photo is one of the Top 10 highlights of the holiday season. It's so random. Burke and his colleagues put on an annual holiday concert for the elementary students in the district. He was hyping the crowd by asking something like, "Who's ready for winter break?" But, he looks like he's leading a music-related social movement.
On Christmas Eve, we arrived in Santa Fe to celebrate the holidays with Nana & Lolo, Keith & Cham. Aunt Sue generously sent clafoutis (tart made of fruit and sweet batter) for us all to enjoy. The boys are enjoying clafoutis on Christmas morning.
Christmas morning, exploring presents
Ryan uses and app to track his Rubik's Cube moves.
Evan assembles a 3D puzzle.
Ryan making pralines with Lolo.
The day after Christmas, we found ourselves wandering downtown, and took a quick pic in the Plaza.
Burke's parents surprised us with a mysterious night out. Once unveiled, we learned the theme was A Night in Spain, and included dinner at La Boca and tickets to an impressive flamenco performance. Such a generous, thoughtful gift!
We also spent some time near Albuquerque, or as Ryan called it "The Big Querque" (pronounced /kirk/).
First stop, we hiked to view some petroglyphs.
It was cold in New Mexico, so no relief from the midwest temperatures, but they have plenty of lovely winter sunshine which is exceedingly rare at home this time of year. 🌞
After dinner, we head to the ABQ BioPark for the River of Lights event/display. This was reminiscent of when we'd go to Zoo Lights in Phoenix with the Lokeys during the holiday season, so there was an element of nostalgia.
This reminded us of a book we read at Halloween called Creepy Carrots.
Would we even be in New Mexico without a UFO reference?
Evan and I like the look of a vehicle outlines with lights. Put instruments in the truck bed, and you have an extra meaningful (to us) display.
Along with the cribbage tournament, we played a game called Telestrations. It is like Pictionary and telephone combined. One person (tries to) draw something specific, the booklet is passed to the next person who guesses what's drawn, booklet passed again, and the next person draws what the previous person wrote, and so on (hard to describe). The guesses and drawings are usually hilarious.
You were lucky if you were sitting to the left of Ryan. His drawings were detailed, and easy to decipher.
Can you guess what he drew in the two following pictures?
Josie and Fenris always keep things interesting.
We brought them a gift - a nutcracker squeaky/plush toy seen here with Josie.
Here are the remnants of the nutcracker toy four short days later.
One of the other Top 10 highlights of the holiday season, was seeing Joe Illick & The New Year's Eve Orchestra with soloist Augustin Hadelich at The Lensic Performing Arts Center. The program was so enjoyable, the energy was lively, and the soloist had us dropping our jaws. We all sang Auld Lang Syne to conclude the show. Really memorable NYE experience!
I headed home on New Year's Day to be with my mom and dad. The rest of the family headed home a couple days later. As always, we are grateful for time with the Lokeys, and for safe travel. Until next time...
Happy, healthy, prosperous 2024!
