Christmas- RV Style

No, we didn't deck out the RV with blaring lights and drive around town. We took a more modest approach and left the delights of the holidays for the inside of the RV. We hung stockings, a wreath and put up a tree. The boys said "it might not be our best tree, but it's definitely our most creative." I actually like it better than all of our other trees. Below you will find how we prepped for our first Christmas in the RV (of course with a good drink in hand). I'll start off with the drink so you can go make yourselves one while reading this post. Good plan? I think so.

Thanksgiving in an RV

This week will be a little different. I'll be posting about our experience with holidays in the RV and how we've celebrated and decorated. Hope you enjoy!

I got an email the day before I planned on grocery shopping for Turkey Day. The email's main article was on How to celebrate Thanksgiving in your RV. They listed 5 ways to get 'er done. As soon as I saw the title I assumed it would be advice on how to manage such a huge meal in SUCH a small space. Uh no! Here are the tips the email listed: cook outside, grill it, cook with a group, have it catered or go out. I was not impressed people, not impressed at all! I decided (with a little push from a good friend) to create a post on what we did to make our Thanksgiving meal a success. Complete with recipes that you will love.

Day Trippin' to White Sands

We left Santa Fe and were headed to Tucson, Arizona. We needed an overnight stop to break up the drive and visiting White Sands National Monument totally fit the bill. We found a Harvest Host winery stop but when we arrived we immediately made a u-turn and decided to find another place to park for the night. It looked like an abandoned shed and not so much a winery. I'm not one to judge but think the sign was being held up by a piece of string, too. Yep- not so much. We found an RV park about 10 minutes down the road, parked The Big B, borrowed sleds from the front office and headed to White Sands as we only had a couple hours of daylight left. We were also really thankful that no missile testing was going on that day (that really happens). That would've been a big bummer.

Santa Fe

Our first month long stay and I must say that there is a part of me that has a serious itch to get moving. Then there is the other part of me that told Edson I just got my mojo here and we are leaving! I mean... I found my grocery store, I found our weekly story time at La Farge library with Miss Michelle and we found the playgrounds we like to frequent. Funny how you look at things when your home is on wheels. It's hard to get out of developing a routine-- it is just a naturally occurring and comforting thing.

Day Trippin' to Albuquerque

Edson had to go back to Virginia to deal with storage issues this past weekend. It wasn't our favorite option but it was the only viable one. That meant the kids and I were riding solo. It also meant that we were headed to Albuquerque to take Daddy to the airport and a day trip was in order. I have to say I was pretty impressed by Albuquerque. It's huge, new and modern. There are a lot of activities and tons of people outdoors. It's not how I remembered. My Dad lived here for a brief stint in my younger years and I visited a few times. All I remember was Sandia Peak. Another thing we passed on due to price this go 'round. I'm starting to see why my parents had one kid. Man these little beings make everything pricey!

Here are the highlights from our day:

Day Trippin' to Bandelier & Valles Caldera

These places definitely deserve their own post. They are about an hour and a half outside Santa Fe. They are beautiful and just plain COOL. This post will be short and sweet and full of pictures. A good break from my normal wordy ones.

The Giving Tour: The Food Depot

This is our last post in the 5-day Giving Tour extravaganza (just made that up). I hope you've enjoyed reading about the places where we've volunteered. Next week we will be back to fun times with posts 2-3 times a week about our recent travels. Now back to The Food Depot:

There wasn't much our family could do with a 2 year old and a warehouse full of food without a danger factor being present. Chris, the Volunteer Coordinator at The Food Depot took care of us anyway. He set us up as a group. We arrived and were given a tour of the facility. Think the Costco of Food Banks. Chris educated all of us on what it is they actually do at the Food Depot and it was extremely helpful and appreciated. Our kids were pumped to put on their hair nets to help and get started on our task.