We (hub, Nanook, Aluche and I) decided to take a drive across Texas to surprise our parents for New Year. It was spectacular! Initially, we weren't going to tell any of our parents about our secret arrival. In order for us to have a successful surprise we had to tell my mom. My mom and pop go to the cabin for the New Year every year and I wanted to make sure they were in town when we were in town so we had to tell her. Either way the trip was wonderful!
First order of business...PETER PIPER PIZZA! There aren't any Peter Piper Pizzas in Houston which truly sucks. There is no pizza like a pizza from Peter Piper Pizza. My goodness those pizzas we had that day were the best tasting pizzas we had in a long time:).
For the New Years gathering my mom cooked all day for the family get together. My mom made pozole, tamales and tres leches. Even though my mother in law was in a boot due to surgery she still made her famous rice that can convert a rice hater into a rice lover! She also made fire hot queso. The queso was a huge hit for my pop.
After all the festivities calmed down my pop, mom, brother and I took a drive to the cabin in Cloudcroft. The weather was wonderful. There was at least eight inches of snow. Since there was so much snow we feared that our vehicles wouldn't make it down to the cabin. We all walked a quarter mile to get to the cabin. BTW those tracks you see coming down the driveway aren't car tracks...those are tracks from the luggage my mom and I pulled. The person you see in the back is my brother, Martin. Good times!
We thought walking to the cabin was going to be the worst of our problems. Once we made it to the cabin we learned that the cabin had no running water. All the cabin's pipes were frozen solid. It was late and it was cold and we didn't want to carry our luggage back to the vehicles because we were tired. We all decided to rough it out and live like cavemen with electricity/power:). We figured we would boil all the snow on the deck. For every gallon of snow we boiled it seemed we would barely get a half a cup of water! It was fun.
Another memorable moment of the trip to the cabin was we had absolutely no phone service. We felt like fools walking around in the cabin and outside trying to call people. I found this one area where we had service. I couldn't move the phone because I would lose my call. See for yourself:).
The next morning Martin and I went skiing at Ski Apache. When we arrived it was a zoo of people! I was a little discouraged at first but then we decided to head straight to the top of the mountain. I was a little hesitant at first considering I hadn't skied in almost three years. I changed my mind when I was apart of the zoo of people. Martin reassured me that there wouldn't be anyone at the top of the mountain. By golly he was right! The top of the mountain had no more than five people at a time. It was magnificent!
Martin and I drove back to El Paso after a day of skiing, laughing and falling. I couldn't leave El Paso without seeing the little girl from across the street, Andrea. She came over Sunday morning for breakfast. It was more like a feast rather than breakfast. My pop and mom combined forces in the kitchen and a feast was the ending result. They cooked mandarin cream pancakes (from scratch), eggs, bacon, cinnamon roles, toast, coffee and juice. Everything tasted GREAT! I will see Andrea in May at her graduation!
Leaving El Paso was not easy for both of us. We made it back to Houston in ten hours but once we made it to Houston it took us an additional 1.5 hours to get to our house due to Houstonian traffic. It was a horrible mess! The amazing part was Nanook and Aluche slept 11.5 hours STRAIGHT! We pulled over in San Antonio to let them stretch a little and they didn't want to get off of their beds. They were so tired from all the excitement with their cousins, Frankie and Mona. They didn't peep the whole way back home! What a blessing!
