300 Days of Sunshine

I am embracing the fact the Santa Fe is not a temporary place of residence or a short-term clinical rotation for me, but my new home, a place where I actually live .   I have developed a routine here, made good friends, and equally important, I have developed a taste for New Mexican cuisine. For Christmas I received a wonderful new cookbook... Santa Fe School of Cooking: Flavors of the Southwest. As explained in the introduction of the book, “the mission of the Santa Fe School of Cooking has always been to celebrate and promote the rich historical traditions and food of Santa Fe and its surroundings.”   Santa Fean cuisine is truly a unique blend of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo cultures.   And what a delicious cuisine to celebrate!   In 2012, Santa Fe won the award for “ America’s Best Food ” from USA Today. Paging through the book, I feel more than a little overwhelmed by the complexity of the recipes and my la...

Since 2013 is my year of wedding planning (or I should say my final year of wedding planning, because what girl hasn’t been planning their wedding since they were old enough to walk and hold flowers), I have determined to dedicate a few of my blog posts this year to that which consumes my life.   My first wedding reflection: rustic themes and trends.   We see these elements everywhere in the wedding planning realm – mason jars, twine, chalk boards, mismatched glassware, wild flowers, bridesmaids in boots, the list goes on!   Here are some examples from Pinterest: I can’t help but ask myself, what is with this infatuation with Rustic ?   Is it an attempt to get away from pompous formalities and expectations in an effort to display one’s creative side?   Is Rustic a movement toward keeping things simple, perhaps to draw the attention away from the things and toward the people , which is what a celebration is all abo...

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850 Another year over, and a new one just begun…   2012 was an exciting year for me and Jaycob!   It was our first full year in Santa Fe, and we’re enjoying our new home here more and more now that we have a great group of friends, many favorite restaurants and hang-out spots, and greater familiarity with the hiking trails.   We celebrated several friends’ weddings this year, and welcomed a few new babies into the world (with more to come in 2013!).   We enjoyed vacations and visits to New Orleans, Denver, Minneapolis, Aspen, Chicago, Bloomington, Boca Raton, Virginia Beach and Miami, and we were excited to have some of our friends and family members come visit us in the southwest.   We went to Balloon Fiesta (twice), took a ride in a hot air balloon, rode horses, expl...