Mega Christmas Series: Merrill Interlude

Just when we thought we were having more fun in Albuquerque than we could have, our dear friends, the Merrills, stopped by on their way through from Dallas to Utah.

First, they took a tour of my folks' castle. Kristy especially was entranced by my parent's library, which fills walls and walls of bookcases in my parent's basement study complex.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the ever-impish Nate (above) removed a key and its tassle from an early 20th century china cabinet and took off running. My vigilent sister Anhara spotted this mischief, tailed Nate, tackled him, and pried the key out of his white-knuckled fist. All in good fun, of course.

We packed up all of the impish kids and visited a couple of favorite Albuquerque hangouts with the Merrills: first, Frontier (near the UNM campus) for dinner, and second, the old Double Rainbow which is now called the Flying Something or Other (in Albuquerque's artsy Nob Hill district) for dessert. Read more about this at Kristy's blog. Maybe she got the name right.

Here's Kristy and I with Nate and Meredith:

Next shot includes more kids: Sophia, Christopher, and Jacob. Aidan was running loose around the shop. The following photo is the dads Doug and Matt, deep in conversation.