Birthday Celebration and Christmas with Attitude

Whew! We made it! We had a great time in Albuquerque and great Christmas with Nana D, Mr. Walker, Uncle Adam and Erin.

We got up a o'dark thirty on Tuesday to head to Albuquerque which meant that dad got to spend yet another birthday in the car to visit the in-laws. He is such trooper! We got in about 11:30 and mom and dad promptly started eating. Dad then went out for a birthday mountain bike ride. It would be his last in any sort of decent weather so I think he enjoyed it.

We then spent the rest of the day relaxing. Dad took over the rocking chair next to the heating vent because he's 40 now and needs to rest and keep warm. That night, Uncle Adam and Erin came over for dinner and red velvet birthday cake. That cake was about the best thing I've ever had and I wanted a piece everyday after that.

On Wednesday, we woke up to about 6 inches of snow and really, really cold weather. That didn't stop us from heading out to shovel the walk and make snow men and snow angels. Our snowman kind of looked like Jaba the Hut but in our defense, dad and I both grew up in Tucson and never had enough snow to make a snow man. The snow was also very powdery which is great for skiing but not so good for making things with.

Even Nana got into the spirit of things and came out to make snow angels with me. She made a really nice one and we all appreciated it that much more when she torked her knee again getting up. Thank you Nana!

That night, we ventured down to the Botanical Gardens for the River of Light show. It was wonderful! We went with Uncle Adam, Erin and 3 of her young cousins and all of us kids did so great. We all listened (of course 2 of the kids were 8 months old, so they really didn't have a choice!) and no one got lost. There were all kinds of cool lights- a T-Rex, an airplane, a flying horse and the best part was that the miniature trains were up and running. They were carrying luminarias and looked so very pretty.

We all came back home and warmed up with some of Mr. Walker's vaquero stew. Sooo delicious Mr. Walker! ( I got red velvet cake for desert!)
On Christmas Eve morning, it was very cold again but I braved it for awhile to help Mr. Walker set up the luminarias for that night. Being a warm weather girl, I only lasted a few minutes before I couldn't take it any more and headed in for the day. We spent the rest of the day making cookies (well Nana did) and just hanging around. We did make to church that night which was a little rough because I didn't take a nap.
I headed to bed early that night but not before I got the cookies and milk ready for Santa.

On Christmas morning I was awakened by the jingling of bells and clicking of hooves (courtesy of dad's iphone) and I really thought Santa had come. Dad made me stay in bed a bit longer because it was still dark out and Santa needed to finish up his work.

Well, I'll tell you, he had a lot of work to do! I got so many great things!

I got more cars than I could ever imagine! I got a "car bag" that looks like a big tire to put all my cars in. Just so no one thinks I don't have any girlyness in me, I also got blue nail polish and 2 lip glosses and I love them both!
Since it didn't get above 25 degrees, we spent the rest of the day inside. Erin was so fun- she crammed herself into my teeny-tiny tent with me (when no one else would) and we played the Ladybug Game about 10 gajillion times. As you can see, grown ups don't fit all the way in my tent but at least Erin tried! Thanks Erin- I sure appreciated that and so did mom and dad.

We came home yesterday (Saturday) and as much as we loved Albuquerque, we were happy to be back where it was warm. It was 11 degrees when we drove away and the poor x-terra barely started. We spent today re-adjusting to life after the holidays. I'm not adjusting so well and am making mom and dad a bit crazy but this too shall pass!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we will see you Wednesday!