enchanting

In an attempt to find out just exactly what makes New Mexico the "land of enchantment," we headed down yonder south after Thanksgiving to see if we could find anything more enchanting than Albuquerque.

 

Hello, they have a giant pistachio! I made a goal to see it after I read about a bunch of giantized sculptures around Australia. Awesome and enchanting.

 Then onto the best sledding of our lives... in sand. I may never sled in snow again. It was so fast and we didn't start to freeze after ten minutes! Good thing because there was a little bit of this:

 

Roman dramatically plopped down and then raised his head to say, "cheeeeeeeese." hahaha

 It was such a fun trip. Sometimes just getting out of town and staying at a hotel over night is just what is needed to cheer everyone up after all our family leaves after Thanksgiving. And I daresay it was a bit enchanting down there in Alamagordo.

leaves are falling

Our neighbor's tree sheds all its leaves in one go. It's amazing. Yesterday the branches were completely full and this morning it is raining leaves and filling the lawn. I love how there is no warning, as the leaves don't even bother to change colors before their mass descent . So there's really no other choice but to head out on Leaf Shedding Day and have an early morning leaf fight. And the cute thing is that this house is in the middle of us and a family with a four year old and they were already out in their jammies with the same idea.

Ps. My favorite part of this picture is Banks over on the side.