gabe and i are very fortunate. We are able to be with family on both holidays this year - Thanksgiving AND Christmas! This is the first time ever since we've been living in Arizona. Kathy and Jim flew down for Thanksgiving this year and we had quite the adventures!
They flew in on Thanksgiving day and we just hung around and cooked some good food. Gabe was learning how to carve the turkey and Kathy made our gravy for us, as I'm not the best gravy maker yet.
On black friday we slept in (awww so good) and then decided that we could try going to a couple of stores for some good deals. Our first destination: Kohls. We lasted approximately 3 minutes inside that store upon seeing the line that we couldn't find the end of after walking for that amount of time. Thankfully we were all on the same page and turned around quickly.
We had a lot of good food while they were here: My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, Pei Wei, Ra Sushi, Oregano's, Gardunos, and I still think I'm missing some. Gabe was able to take a good amount of time off but I had kids all week so was unable to take much time off during their stay.
On Saturday we went to the Grand Canyon in one day and looking back wished we would have stayed over night for a few reasons. Nonetheless, we had an amazing visit to this beautiful land. Gabe and I had never been there during the day so it was a new adventure for us as well. It is expansive and captivating. I could have watched that landscape for days - given there weren't hundreds of people around. It was definitely chilly there and we were hoping to stay for sunset. We did stay for a good amount of dusk but decided to head back before the sun was completely down. Plus you couldn't really stand and just enjoy it all because if you were there long enough (10 seconds) without taking a picture of your friends/family or being in a picture, you were soon a photographer for someone else. It was a fun day in Northern Arizona.
It was amazing to see the colors of the canyon change with the setting sun.
We went to Los noches de Luminarias at the Garden which was quite spectacular this year. We have a grand installation by Chihuly there right now through May of next year. Chihuly is a glass blower and is known around the world for his glass sculptures. I hadn't seen the pieces during the night prior to this I was pleasantly surprised and delighted. It looked amazing at night. I love to walk the trails and listen to music, so Lumi is the best of this because you do both. You can see more pictures of the sculptures that are at the garden by visiting the the
Garden's website. It was fun to take family to Lumi too, I've always wanted to but never been able. Jim, Kathy, and Gabe came and met me for lunch one day as well so they were able to see where I work which was fun.
The Coyotes hockey game was another highlight. They played the Kings and won in an exciting last period. The whole week was fun and enjoyable. It was wonderful to spend time with Jim and Kathy, we had a great visit.
Looking up at the wonderful saguaro
Looking up at the wonderful saguaro
I didn't capture this as good as it was that day - the tips of these spines are golden yellow are were glowing in the sun.
OUCH! These guys are huge!
I couldn't get over just how red these spines were so I had to isolate the red and make everything else black and white. Below you'll see it with the green cactus, it was the perfect Christmas cactus. 
