Traditional Non-traditional Thanksgiving

We nearly had a traditional Thanksgiving this year. We did not host, we did not gather huge numbers of family (we just don't have a huge family) but we did have a normal turkey dinner! I did not cook it.

This year we stayed close to home and spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Colorado Spring at the Broadmoor resort.

We arrived on Wednesday with plenty of time to check out the resort and walk around the lake.  Travis was craving pizza so we skipped eating on site and found a great local place nearby.

Thursday the boys got up early and hit the pool, letting me sleep for an extra hour. By then my tummy was growling for some brekkie so I headed out to grab a snack and check out the pool.  Turkey dinner was midday, a good choice for our family who seems to do best when we eat at regular times. FFM donned his tie (his request) and we had a lovely Thanksgiving buffet.

 Friday dawned COLD but we persevered and visited the zoo and various other local attractions until we were too cold to go on.  Back to the pool and hot tub!  Saturday was train day. Back in July we bought tickets to the Santa Train. However, we arrived to learn that our ticket seller had made a mistake, the Santa Train didn't start until Sunday so our tickets were for a full cog rail train ride to the top of Pike's Peak. Was anyone disappointed? Nope. I don't think FFM even noticed he was so excited.

 It's a cog train because it's steep...the cog helps pull the train up grades of about 25%.  Your normal steep road grade = 7-8%. The trip up takes about an hour and FFM sat stock still the entire time. Since we bought our tickets early we had great seats right at the front of the train.

 At the top of the peak it was 9F and windy.  We made a dash into the visitor center for hot chocolate and donuts and beat a hasty retreat back to the warm train.

 It was a lovely day, coming down we watched the other train leaving the peak.

Saturday night was fondue and tree lighting, the Broadmoor lit all it's trees and when we returned from dinner to see all the Christmas lights twinkling and reflecting in the lake we started to feel a little more Christmasy. FFM immediately started wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and hasn't stopped yet.