Our Last Holiday in the Hood

After spending the last 4 weeks packing up a storm (and coming within 20 minutes of forgetting our front row tickets to Peter Pan as a result!) it was nice to spend a few nights focusing on friends, family and festivities before the final push to move January 4th. One of the only things we love about our house besides our house itself, is the neighborhood we live in and the magical luminaria tour on Christmas Eve. I still remember the night that Tony brought me through the Huning Castle Neighborhood as we were killing time before picking up my mom and little brother Jon at the airport for the Christmas holiday. We had lived in ABQ for over 2 years and called it home, but I knew instantly that this neighborhood was where I needed to be. #homegoals
Several years passed before we were finally able to purchase a home in the exclusive and coveted neighborhood. With it came many, many setbacks. Our truck and trailer were stolen as I was unpacking only 2 weeks into moving in. Another vehicle was stolen the following year. And another the year after that. And another the year after that....we quickly realized that moving into an affluent neighborhood only showed the criminals that we had things to steal. It was a hard lesson learned.
One thing that never changed was our love for the neighborhood at Christmastime. Every year we would invite friends and family over to celebrate with tamales and cocktails before bundling up and walking the hood taking in the breathtaking luminarias. After 9 years, our last Christmas Eve was truly magical. We gathered quite a crowd and began our walk, stopping at our friends house to warm our bones by their fire pit set up in the driveway (and our bodies with a shot of tequila) while watching our kids swing from the tire swing in their front yard tree. Our next stop was at a fellow firefighter's house who was hosting a huge holiday party, offering us an amazing spread of food from their family's local restaurant. And we could not NOT stop at "drunk Santa's" house for a nightcap with their family who became like family to us over the years. It was everything we imagined it would be...which is a double edged sword. It is going to be hard to find again what we found with our Kit Carson house. But we are so incredibly grateful for the memories!