Kitty Deschanel

SN and I have lived in New Mexico many years, but had never visited (or wanted to visit) the River of Lights event that is held during the holidays every year at the botanical garden. At $12 per person, the tickets seemed too expensive, especially as I'd seen the remnants of the exhibits during the day while there during the spring.  Yes, I thought the dozen or so scraps that were scattered around represented the entire thing. But guess what? The River of Lights at the ABQ BioPark is HUGE. We spent more than an hour there last night and could probably have stayed even longer. We're old though (and pitifully out of shape for our 30s) and our legs were tired from walking so much. I forgot how enormous the Albuquerque botanical gardens is. A quick story before I get to the photos - we nearly missed the Albuquerque River of Lights last night. The weather was perfect, around 40 degrees with no wind or rain, and I was certain the crowd would increase by Thursday night, when Win

I was just scheduling one of our dental patients for December 21st, our last day in the office for 2018, and said we'll see them next week, then thought that couldn't possibly be right. December 21st is next week?! Where the heck has my year gone? I'd better publish this post before it turns into Merry Thanksgivmas. SN and I hosted Thanksgiving in our new home this year. Despite all our antisocial impulses (we're essentially hermits), we had a blast! Bring on the socializing!  Actually, we did bring on the socializing with another small dinner party and overnight guests the very next weekend. And that was quite enough for these two introverts. No more socializing until next year, please. We went even bigger and better than last year's Thanksgiving . We even had a seating chart! Martha Stewart would be so proud. #1 must-have item when hosting Thanksgiving = adorable turkey invitations I made these, and the other printables in this post, for

We decorated our mountain home for the holidays yesterday and woke up blanketed inside a snowy winter wonderland today. Living in the NM mountains is the best! Mountain Home Decor If you don't have one of these wooden bears on your porch, is it even really a mountain home? (Wooden bear carvers everywhere say no.) Up in the mountains, we "let it snow" to the point that we're snowed in. Luckily, our John Deere tractor is always ready to come to our rescue. We'd rather stay home anyway. A collection of rustic red lanterns from a Colorado antique shop adds color to the patio. (You know, in case our yellow front door didn't do the trick.) When decorating your mountain dream home, natural hides and antlers can be used in a modern, sophisticated way to keep things from feeling like a hunting lodge. There are more photos of our hallway in the post, The Great Wallpaper Mural Indecision . I'm pretty sure this is my favorite phot