A Very Nice Saturday Night!

Tonight was the 22nd Annual Parade of Lights for Grand Junction. This is going to be our third Christmas together and so this was our third year attending the Parade of Lights.

We had a really wonderful night...one of those nights that I wished would not end. We watched lights further up in the Parade route then we have in years past. It was actually right across from the judges and mc. It was cold, but not as cold as last year. Michael was thrilled that he had his purchases from Christmas in Minnesota last year - with him. He was bundled up. We watched most of the Parade and then Michael asked if I wanted to go warm up in this new cafe we have been talking about trying. We were standing right in front of it so I think it was calling our names.

Let me say Cafe Biltmore knows food. It was incredible -- it is a foodie's dream. It is appetizers but you can order salad and a vegetable with them too. We started with Parmesan crisps. They were thickly grated Parmesan cheese with maybe some parsley for color baked a little. It was made with really good Parmesan because the taste of them was really that strong good taste. We then had a chiozo sausage panini. It a really delicious bread (thinking a sourdough), thin thin slices of fontana cheese, chiozo sausages sliced in half. It was served with a basil pesto (I think it was basil) and a chipolte mayonnaise. The flavors were incredible. We then decided to try one more item from their menu...it was hard to decide what to get...but we ended up ordering a bacon and potato omelet. It was more a fritta then an omlete to me but it was fantastic. The flavors they had going on in it were so good. We had all this with a bottle of wine from our favorite local winery - Carlson Vineyards. When my parents come in January, I think we should go again with them as I think they would really enjoy it.

After watching a wonderful parade and eating delicious food, we headed back to get the car and decided to take a drive and see if some of our favorite areas had lights up yet. And some did. We listened to one of XM's holiday stations as we drove around looking at Christmas Lights.

Grand Junction does this thing called The Cup of Cheer Home Tour. I just found out about it tonight. You buy a ticket and the money goes to the Grand Junction symphony. You then get a map to go tour Christmas decorated homes throughout Grand Junction. A couple of the houses in the sections we really like had signs in the front of their homes showing they participate. This tour thing is only one weekend and it is this weekend so we won't have time to attend this year. But I do want to look into it for next year as I think it is something both Michael and I would enjoy.

We really enjoyed our Saturday night even though we had things at home to do that didn't get done -- it was worth it to get out and have such a nice time.