Christmas in a Tourist Town

Before I lived in Red River, NM, I visited as a tourist. It took me about five minutes to fall in love with the mountains. Now, when tourists ask, "Are you local?!" I feel like I've won a prize. And truly, I have; but life here isn't easy. We made the choice to vacate the temptations and distractions of city-life and to, by the grace of God, focus on our family. But we're forty-five minutes from the nearest Wal-Mart (and it's only open until ten pm), twenty-five minutes from a doctor's office and one hour from the hospital. What little money there is to be made here has to be made during the summer and the winter, because spring and fall are off-seasons.

Holidays, in a tourist town, are when we work the hardest. This is our first year to experience this, though, because construction is not usually a seasonal job. Hopefully, by next spring, someone will be building again. But for now, Papa Bear is keeping himself busy as a local ski instructor by day and a mild-mannered bar bouncer by night.

Please pray for him (and, as always, for our marriage). It is unlikely that he will swing a day off until sometime in mid January. For now, he works from eight to four, comes home to rest, and then works from seven in the evening to two-thirty or three in the morning. And since I don't even try to sleep when he's not home, I'm a little tired too. But he is beyond exhausted. It broke my heart to watch him leave this morning. No, this is not how we feel called to live; but for now, this is the work that God has provided, and we are determined to be grateful.

Papa Bear and I have both experienced a lay-off recently (because when it rains it pours). Blondie is no longer apart of our daily routine (they found a deal that worked better for them financially - no hard feelings). And when she left, she took our entire grocery budget with her. The only reason I am mentioning this is because I get a lot of e-mails about time-saving, budget friendly meals, and I think this past week has been a perfect example of stretching (easy, good, and cheap!).

Before the weekend I dumped a ten pound bag of chicken legs and thighs ($7.00) into my crock pot. I put them in very late at night and just let them slow-cook until morning. Once they had thoroughly cooled, I deboned and shredded the chicken. Then, I put the shredded meat into a gallon-sized baggie and stuffed it into the fridge.

That first night I made chicken catchatori over steamed white rice. For the sauce, I simmered onion and garlic, added canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, Italian seasoning and a couple of large scoops of chicken.

The second night I made a chicken enchilada filling from shredded chicken, corn, cilantro, canned black beans, left-over rice and a little Monterrey Jack cheese.

The third night I made chicken and green chili stuffed baked potatoes with sour cream and cheese.

And on the fourth day, I had enough leftover chicken to add a can of crushed pineapple and a scoop of real mayo for a delicious chicken salad!



Yesterday afternoon, Papa Bear mentioned that he could really go for some chili (a little red meat after all that chicken?). He also wanted a hair cut, and our feverish and fussy first-Christmassing fellow was impossible to put down.

So, I made four can chili (which he loved as much as if I had slaved all day) over corn chips and topped with cheese!





After he left for his second shift, I got to work on mine. Baby Bear decided to cooperate (kind of), but he didn't want to be very far from his mama.



He hung out in the kitchen while I mixed soft-cooked lentils into my ground beef and then patted out thirty fiber rich and money saving hamburger patties!

Today, I'm working on some less practical Christmas baking, but if you have any money saving meal ideas, please share them in the comments!