Late as always, but here to deliver a quick
feliz navidad and a few fond memories! As you know, I was lucky enough to be able to spend this past Christmas in the beautiful Land of Enchantment. I arrived in New Mexico on the 21st of December and flew out on the 5th of January. It was absolutely amazing to be back home and get to spend some time with the family, as well as spend a few U.S. dollars purchasing the gastronomical wonders only available through the benevolence of New Mexico green and red chile.
Fun fact: some international readers may not know that the usual English spelling of "chile" is, in fact, "chili"...but the originally Spanish spelling of "chile" was officially adopted in New Mexico by the governor. If a New Mexican sees it spelled "chili" they will most likely wrinkle their nose, disgusted by the inauthentic impostor, and continue to another restaurant.
One of the biggest surprises of my trip home was that I was surrounded by snow the entire time. I landed and was greeted by a white Albuquerque and Riley, my best friend, and I drove into a snowy Farmington the following evening. Needless to say, my first meal/stop upon entering the 505 was Frontier for a fiesta burger (green chile cheeseburger).
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| #shamelessselfie |
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| The gorgeous landscape of New Mexico |
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| The roads were snowy for the entire drive |
My trip to the U.S. was a series of satisfying sentences, with a couple sporting a punctuation mark at their ends. One of these was the family cross-country skiing trip just across the border, north of Chama. This expedition on Neff Mountain had a yurt as its destination. We thought there would be a bit of snow. There was A LOT...9 feet (3 meters). We thought there would be tracks to follow. There weren't. It turned out to be quite the back country adventure. You will find photos below.
A second 'punctuator' was the wedding of Tyler Elliot, our cousin, to his now wife, Jaimee. The wedding took place in Kalispell, Montana and the Pavliks traveled there via van in a throwback to the old days of family road trips. After two days of driving we were able to spend a few days up there in the (bitter) cold and (picturesque) snow. The wedding took place at the Grouse Mountain Lodge. It was an amazing experience and I still can't believe that my old beach and fishing buddy is now married and embarking on a new stage of his life. Congrats to the newlyweds!
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One of our two dogs, Bella, sporting her
Christmas attire |
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Some of my students in Prague don't
believe that we put chile in/on everything... |
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| View from the front window of the house |
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Christmas is never the same without the five of us together. What you can't
see in this picture is my mother, who probably has already unwrapped half of
her presents (she is often overcome by the Christmas spirit) |
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Scrumptious Christmas dinner with the family and my other best friend, Patrick.
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Prime Rib. This is usually our traditional New Year's meal, but, as we
were to be in Montana for New Year's, we decided to
have it early on Christmas. |
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| Nothing quite like the New Mexico skies...especially sunrises and sunsets. |
Meanwhile, on Neff Mountain...
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There were at least 5 fallen trees that needed
to be navigated over the course of our ascent |
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| Mountain lighting. |
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| The inside of the yurt |
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| The outside of the yurt. Everything was covered with snow upon arrival and we had to shovel it off. |
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We had to make our own tracks. The snow
the week before hadn't been exactly light... |
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One of my last meals in New Mexico, getting
my fix of chile |
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| Sunrise in Blackfoot... |
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....temperature in Blackfoot. (temperature is
in degrees Celsius) |
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| Some humor always helps take the bite of the cold off... |
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| Driving back down to New Mexico |
When I landed in Prague, I was once more greeted with a snowy city. It turns out that it had just begun snowing there. I guess I must have brought it with me....from....New Mexico?
