Thanksgiving Taos Part 3

We had a great Thanksgiving day. We started the day off right with red chili topped bloody marys. Ann made us a betting squares chart for the cowboys game later and we each kicked in two dollars a square. Marcie and Ann and Mom and I bustled around the kitchen all morning, preparing our feast while also joining everyone in the living room to watch the Macy's day parade.
We made an organic turkey with red chili gravy (mind blowingly good- made out of roasted garlic, onions and red chills). We had vegan and pork tamales, sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecans on top, a huge platter of roasted root vegetables drizzled with balsamic vinegar, quinoa and wild rice pilaf, rolls, fruit salad and two different kinds of homemade cranberry sauce. We also had pumpkin, apple, pecan and key lime pies. It was a feast!
We all sat around the table and held hands and told each other what we were grateful for. The food was delicous and it was wonderful to be with our family in such a gorgeous setting with the bright blue sky outside and the fire roaring.
After the feast, mom and I took a walk and others took a nap or watched the game. Mom and dad won all four quarters on our betting game! We gathered that evening in the living room to watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.
Friday was our last day in Taos. We hung out with Marcie and fam in the morning and then Michael and I took the boys to lunch at The Gorge restaurant. It was Davis' choice. After lunch we met everyone at the the Twirl Christmas party. It was fantastic. The decorations were great and they had a wonderful New Orleans style jazz trio. Upstairs, Santa was waiting and the boys sat in his lap and told him what they would like for Christmas and posed for pictures. Then they stopped at the crafts table and made a beautiful felt ornament. They picked up cookies off the platter on the way down and headed straight for the playscape. They played for a while and then came inside and picked out some toys. They all had money because mom and dad had given away their football winnings to each child. Marcie and Ann said goodbye from there and headed home and we shopped the plaza a bit for thank you gifts. Then we went home and began to pack up.
We had a family movie night with mom and dad and G.G. and Gramp that evening where we watched Brave and ate pizza from Pizanos. The soy pizza wasn't fabulous, but we were glad to have an option. After we put the kids to bed, Mom and Dad and I stayed up by the fire and chatted about travel and the world and much more. It was wonderful.f
Saturday morning, we packed up the car and were on the road by 8:30Am. We drove for a while and then stopped in Fort Sumner for a picnic at the local elementary school playground. We drove on, happily listening to Harry Potter until we arrived in Lubbock around 3:30PM. We checked into a fabulous suite at the Overton hotel and relaxed and let the kids play in the living room We yelped Lubbock and found a very cheap, hole-in-the-wall type Thai food place right next to liquor store. Perfect! We went and had dinner and picked up some booze for the hotel room. We put the kids to bed in the living room on the pull out couch and then curled up in our big king size bed with cocktails in hand and watched Breaking Dawn part 2 again. (Michael pirated it and wired it up to the big TV). It was great.
We left the hotel in the morning and got on the road by 8:30Am. We drove and stopped in Brady for tacos. Nothing was open except for this tiny little taco hut, sonic and DQ and a BBQ joint. Slim pickings, but at least it was cheap. We got home around 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and doing laundry while the kids ran around outside like crazy people.
It was a wonderful trip.