Georgia Christmas

Luke and I are back from our wonderful trip to Georgia for Christmas. Our flights really weren't bad either (any way you splice it's a long haul). We left Roswell around 2pm MT on Friday the 17th, and arrived into Augusta airport at 10pm ET. My parents were waiting for us as we walked out of the terminal...it makes you feel so good to have people greet you. I can't remember the last time someone was waiting inside an airport verse just driving around the loop waiting for me to jump in the car.

In Augusta we played a billion games as my family always does. We are officially "hardcore gamers". We also visited Luke's co-workers working in Augusta that we might be joining soon (still no official word at this point). Everyone from my family was in town except my brother's family, so we had present time that Saturday night.

Come Monday Luke's mom and sister met my parent's halfway between Augusta and Savannah for the exchange (Thank you families).

In Savannah our first stop was Jalapenos. A Mexican joint near Luke's home that is a favorite for sure. Let me tell you... I soo miss white queso!! You can't find white queso in New Mexico, and I much prefer it over yellow queso.

The next couple of days we wondered around town looking at different homes for sale and taking it easy. One highlight of the trip was having captain Ben take us for a spin on the boat he is sailing to the Bahamas in a few short weeks. 

The Beautiful Boat

Brothers

Amazing Day

 

Some serious power

Luke taking the driver seat

Love

Christmas Eve we caught up with some of Luke's Savannah friends who I feel I know really well just from reading their blogs (you can see them on my side bar: Barefoot Daydreams and Those Mitchells).

Christmas was nice and relaxing. The Dorman girls went to see "Tangled" the new Disney movie of Rapunzel. It's very cute and I have no shame watching kid flicks.

The day after Christmas it was time to head back west. Savannah started showing a bit of flurries and I thought we might not make it out of town, but they sprayed our plane down with some anti-freezing compound and we hit the sky. Luke and I pulled in the driveway around 10pm our time, and to our surprise had a wonderful treat waiting for us. I had told our neighbors I was sad about not seeing all of the houses lit up with tea lights (a New Mexico tradition), so they had our walkway lit up when we arrived. It was beautiful and very sweet. I will surely miss such great neighbors.

Our cute little house all lit up

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all a great start to the New Year!

Taos, NM

Thursday morning Luke and I woke up to hit the road for Taos, NM. Also joining us for our first ski trip of the season was Jenna and Prem. This is their second trip to New Mexico to visit us, and we LOVED having their company. On the last trip we covered the majority of southern NM, so after picking them up at the Albuquerque Airport we ventured off for a little northern NM site seeing (my favorite part of NM for sure). We grabbed lunch at the famous Route 66 Diner where we enjoyed our share of heart stopping grub like chilli cheese fries, and milkshakes.

After lunch we jumped in the car for an hour drive North to for Santa Fe.  In Santa Fe we simply wondered the shops on the square looking at all of the wonderful Native American jewelry and other nick knacks.

Wondering around Santa Fe Square

I LOVE Santa Fe!!

After another hour driving north we made our way into Taos. Luke and I decided we must stop for dinner at The Old Blinking Light between town and the ski valley, and a favorite of ours from the anniversary trip. The ski valley is a good 40 min. drive from the town, so after dinner we wound our way up the steep mountain to our final destination.

We did spoil ourselves by staying in the ski resort at Alpine Village Suites. Our balcony and view were awesome, with an easy walk to the lifts, and everything the ski town had to offer. I must say we were very worried about the snow and the lack there of before arrival! Lucky enough….as we slept it snowed a good 4 to 5 inches and made for a great day of skiing. The entire mountain wasn’t open at this point due to the lack of major snow, but I think I’m ok with that since majority of this mountain is for expert only. Taos is known for its steepness, and I’ll say it definitely lives up to its name. At one point Luke and Prem truly ventured off a cliff labeled black here, but a definite double black anywhere else. Luke has become an amazing boarder! He flies down the mountain hitting jumps along the way and making me more jealous of his fearlessness.

I think my favorite part of this trip was watching Jenna and Prem try snowboarding for the first time. Luke and I handed over our boards and I tried to help guide them down the bunny slope. They both did very well for first timers and I think really enjoyed it. They took some hard falls…one captured below.

Luke and I fly out this Friday for a trip to Georgia for Christmas. I don’t think I’ll blog again until we return. We are planning another Durango ski trip for the last weekend in January and welcome anyone to join us! Here are the rest of our pictures below.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!

We woke up to SNOW!

That's our balcony! Right above the ski shop!

A picture looking down from the lift! Very steep!

The four of us at the top

Jenna's 1st attempt at snowboarding. I'm so proud! She was Awesome!

Prem is about to bust pretty hard in one second!!! 

Enjoying dinner after a day on the slopes

LOVE 

Camel Rock! We thought it was a great sight seeing!

Time Flies!

I can’t believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone with Christmas right around the corner. Yikes!! Time is flying by.

Luke and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Tulsa, Oklahoma this year. Poor Luke must have been a bit overwhelmed at my gigantic extended family, but he handled it like a champ. Luke knows well my first cousins who were all in attendance and shown below, but also got to meet basically everyone on my mother’s side…like Ernest, my second cousin twice removed! Complex stuff here! Thanksgiving Day around 60 of us gathered for a day of Thanks. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family!

Friday after Thanksgiving was filled with Football. Did you watch the AU game? I mean seriously….losing years of my life here! I hope AU can pull out one last win for me since I already booked a hotel room in Glendale. Crazy thing is I called 20 hotels before I found one that wasn’t completely booked.

Now back to my Tulsa tales…my cousin Tyler is a wide receivers coach at Tulsa. Let’s just say we got quite the hook up for the TU vs. SMU game. He got us in the CASE Athletic complex where all of the VIPs hang, then great tickets on the 40 yard line for the game. Luke and my brother however took the whole VIP status to another level, and stood on the sideline for the entire game. The game was very exciting with high scoring!! I’m proud to report Tulsa did pull out a great win. I do have a funny little story to share about Luke’s sideline experience: Throughout the game people kept coming up to him saying “Welcome Back”. Ha! They thought he was an old player! He is a super stud though!

Luke and I stayed to enjoy Saturday watching football and finally headed home on Sunday. I'm pretty sure we've driven through some of the least populated places in the entire USA. You have to admit the sky picture below is stunning though. So pretty and definitely one of my favorite things about living in New Mexico. I don't have many of the photos Luke has on his camera right now, but we'll put those on FB later. 

We’ve put up some Christmas decorations and plan to string our lights today. We aren’t getting too crazy since we are leaving town next Thursday for Taos, and fly to Georgia the weekend after. Man…time really is flying by! Happy Holidays Blog Friends!

The Original 10 Grandkids + Their Children

The whole Leroy Tennyson Side with husbands and wives- minus Tyler and Uncle Chris

Me and Katie with coach/cousin Tyler before the game!

Stunning New Mexico Skies

So...

They finally told Luke that we are moving to Augusta, Ga come Feb. or March. That's my home town for those of you that are not informed! So...we are pretty excited about it. I won't count my chicken's before they hatch though. With Luke's company you never know until you're packing boxes. 

Also, I must give a couple shout outs tonight!! 

One of my best friends Jamie Monk got engaged to another one of my friends and old roomie Scott Pixler! Congrats you too!

My second shout out is for my whole family who is meeting up in Tulsa, OK with our extended family for Thanksgiving! Luke and I were just going to Tulsa to hang out with extended family due to our location this year, but...my whole family is coming out West to meet up! 

Another shout out is due to my sister Jenna and her husband Prem who are flying out here (again) the second weekend in December to hit up the slopes in Taos with Luke and I. 

I do love the holidays!! 
I'm pretty excited my AU tigers pulled out a big win this weekend against those dawgs, and secured a trip to Atlanta. I've read all the reports, etc.... I'm not going to get all fired up and rant like most people, but I do think this is a pretty funny little concoction I've posted below. I don't think I'll post again until after Thanksgiving, so...I hope EVERYONE has a wonderful holiday!

Invite

Ski/Snowboarding season is almost here!!
Luke and I just discovered that we will definitely be in Carlsbad until February 1st and maybe until mid-February. With our new found knowledge...we went ahead and bought each other our early Christmas presents. What did we get each other?? Snowboards of course!!
Even if we only make it three times this season, we will have paid for the boards, so...it only made sense to go ahead and purchase.
I wanted to extend an invite out to all of you blog readers and friends. Luke and I plan on hitting the slopes a lot this season, and would LOVE to have people join us. Please let me know if you have the slightest interest and we'll work something out. The more the merrier!

A picture of my new board and bindings! Luke has yet to purchase his board, but will sometime this week.

The Rossignol Diva Mag 2010

I do realize we have yet to hit Thanksgiving, but we wanted to take advantage of the boards before Christmas, so we did jump the gun a bit.
Seriously call and come ski!!

Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Luke and I went over to Hobbs this Friday for the Carlsbad vs. Hobbs football game with our friends Jacob and Mandy. It was nice to get out of Carlsbad for the night to have dinner and fun with friends. The temperature during the day has been in the high 80s, but dropped drastically at night.

All bundled up at the football game

Luke and I stayed in on Saturday to hand out candy and watch football. Here is our little neighbor Jack all dressed up as a tiger. Luke and I wanted to pin an AU on him!! So happy my Auburn Tigers pulled out another win. Luke and I already said IF we make it to the National Championship game this year in Arizona, we are driving over for sure! 

Guess what other season it is??? PECANS!! We have 5 trees that are going crazy. I already mailed my Gran two huge bags, and they continue to take over our yard. I love to decorate with pecans. Our neighbor also told us a place to sell them for great cash, so....I think I'll be selling some this year.

2 full bags I mailed off to Gran

They really are pretty!

I have them all around my candles in hurricane glasses

I like them filling up about anything!

 Hope you all have had a Happy Halloween! I've worked hard on our New Mexico scrap book all day. This blog has been a great help in terms of pictures and dates. All of you blog readers and not writers should consider starting a blog of our own!

The Not So Wild West

Our life out West is pretty tame, and far from wild these days. The garden is wrapping up because we didn't think to plant pumpkin (I can't believe we forgot to plant that). Here is a picture of some of our chilies that of course did rather well out here. Luke and I are still working on mastering the best technique in terms of cooking them. The locals all say to grill them, then immediately stick them in the freezer. Once cold the skin peels right off and they are ready for use. We have successfully mastered this once so far. It took a while for us to get it right! I have really embraced the green chilies and love the extra flavor. I like to eat them on everything--- which is good since they put them on everything out here. I made pigs in a blanket this Saturday for the game and added green chili for a New Mexican twist. They turned out awesome! So...if you can get fresh green chilies where you live...try it out in your next batch of pigs in a blanket; you won't be disappointed.

Finally our garden gave us some big juicy red tomatoes

The latest garden crop

Luke and I do love our neighbors out here. They are such sweet people. Bob and Mak live two doors down and are such a fun couple. Luke and Bob talk all things man together, and Mak is the sweetest lady who is willing enough to teach me all sorts of wonderful authentic New Mexican dishes (she even tones down the hot factor for my wuss self). Luke and Bob grilled brisket for an entire day a couple of weeks ago--it was amazing! I will say one of my favorite parts of being a New Mexican resident is the food. It's so unique, interesting, and delicious. Enough talk--enjoy the pics!

Luke and Bob grilling hard!

Luke with the brisket!

Shannon our other neighbor has given us so many wonderful things for helping with her house--here is an great chips and salsa bowl she got us. It's very heavy and way to nice for me to ever put food in. The card is a picture of where Luke and I have been hiking several times.