Family and fun at Christmas break...

We had important guests over the Christmas break. My uncle and his family (wife and young daughter from Turkey and two older daughters from NY) came to spend few days with us. They did some sight seeing and lots of shopping and eating, which is in my opinion the best vacation combination.
We took them to a BBQ place that is very close to our home and my uncle was for sure in heaven....

This is a very cool and simple restaurant. Before you get inside you look at all the food and pick what and how much you want. Then they chop it up right there in front of you and give them to you on a tray/wax paper.
Then you go inside and get your side dishes and pay. After that, you can sit down and enjoy your food... And lots of it...

The below four trays were what we got for 10 of us...

We did many fun things during the break...
We went to see Christmas decorations on a cold winter night...

We baked and decorated cookies for Santa...

We made puzzles...

Roasted chestnuts...

And woke up to lots and lots of presents from Santa...

Sleepy adults and happy kids, and lots of wrapping paper...

Korman got lots of legos, and fun toys and crafts...

Sude got an easy bake oven, crafts, books, and legos... Sude's cousin Ezgi got lots of clothes and accessories.

We had many many meals together. Feeding 10 people at every meal was lots of work but fun at the same time since we got to do it all together ...

We finished the week accomplishing the biggest task. Finishing a 1000 piece puzzle. Making a puzzle on Christmas day has been our tradition and this one was no exception. But this time we had big puzzle and some serious puzzlers.

Trip to Taos: What to see around Taos

On our trip to Tao for skiing we also took some time to visit historic sites and museums. On the days that we skied, we were done by 4:00 pm and made a point of visiting the town.
One of the afternoons, we visited the Pueblos. This is one of the longest continuously occupied villages in US.

Then we went to Rio Grade Gorge Bridge which is just totally incredible. It was so windy we hardly walked to the middle and ran back to the car. I still cannot imagine how that bridge was built. It is incredibly high...

We enjoyed our nights by trying many different restaurants and visiting cute shops around town.

I forgot to mention that we rented a house in Taos instead of staying at a hotel. It was so much more roomy and comfortable than a hotel room. We burned logs in the fire place, made s'mores, and enjoyed the coziness and comfort of this little home.

The last day of our trip, we headed to Los Alamos where Atomic bomb was invented and tested.  We visited Bradbury Science museum which is a great museum for both adults and kids. It is free and it has very nice exhibits as well as engaging games and puzzles for the kids and adults who want to be kids again... ;-)

From Los Alamos, we headed to Santa Fe for lunch. We had a great Italian lunch before we headed to the airport. What a great trip we had... It was a good balance of skiing and sight seeing. We will definitely be back next year...

Trip to Taos: Beautiful ski days...

At the beginning of the Christmas break we headed to Taos, New Mexico. We have been there few times in the past to ski and we thought it would be good for the kids to improve their ski skills. This time, we decided to fly to Albuquerque which was much better than driving for 12 hours. The drive from Albuquerque to Taos is still another 2.5 hours but that was not too bad compared to 12 hours.
Also the view of the sun set was just gorgeous.

The next day, we headed to the slopes on a beautiful day. Kids spent the day at the ski school, my husband and I hit the slopes, and my mom enjoyed the ski valley.

How cool he is by the way? He got lots of comments on his goggles...

Me and my flower pants...

We love skiing together. It was such a nice day...



Grandma with her stylish hat, having lunch with us...

At the end of the day, we picked the kids up for the last hour and skied together. Sude did pretty good but Korman was still too scared. We decided to keep them in the school one more day since the weather forecast was not promising another sunny day.

The second day was a total blizzard with snow fall and wind. Kids were able to go to ski school since it was at the base but we decided to hang out at the ski valley and just enjoy the fireplace at the restaurant, have a long lunch, hot chocolate, and watch the kids.

The third day the weather cleared up and it was another sunny and beautiful day. We decided to keep Sude with us all day and she did awesome. She's got such great balance and pretty much no fear. She was even able to ski down some blue slopes.

 
We had hot chocolate and got some toe warmers for ourselves...

Had hamburgers for lunch an just hang out. Korman also did great and we got to ski all together at the end of the day.
I think next year, after a day at the ski school, we can ski all together as a family...
How exciting....

Snowy and lazy days

I am way behind on posts. I had to travel some in the last couple of weeks and you know how it goes. As most of the United States we had big storms last month. No school for 4 days back to back, it is unheard of where we live.

It cold but cozy at the same time. We enjoyed some family time all together at home, baked apple pies, cookies, made lots of hot chocolate and sat by the fire place...

Christmas tree...

We did decorate the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving few weeks ago. Grandma is here and it was lots of fun decorating and having hot chocolate watching the lights of the tree and the fire place.

We had a little hard time find a spot for it in the living room. We like it to be where we sit since we like to sit by it and watch the lights....