Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Christmas in Santa Fe with friends

We just returned from what is becoming an annual trip to Santa Fe with a group of friends. We drove from Denver on Saturday, Dec 22--stopping in Trinidad, Colorado for lunch at Nana and Nano's Italian Deli--which has some of the best red sauce I've ever had and wonderfully tender meatballs. The weather was sunny and it took about 6 1/2 hours (with an hour for lunch).
Where we stayed--El Rey Inn on Cerrillos Road--http://www.elreyinnsantafe.com/ Our room had a small kitchen, a fireplace and lots of light. Since we had a somewhat larger room, it was the gathering place place for our group for cocktails etc.

Where we ate--Saturday--Tomme--http://www.tommesf.com/ one of our friends joined us--a casual, almost industrial looking space with fantastic food--we enjoyed oysters on the half shell, a pork belly appetizer w/quail egg; Japanese sea bass, with gnocchi, spinach, olives; fried chicken, elk steak; tres leches panna cotta, chocolate pudding among other dishes--the chef is Joseph Wrede who had the wonderful restaurant, Joseph's Table in Taos a few year ago
Sunday--lunch--the Swiss Bakery--http://www.swissbakerysantafe.com wonderful pastries made in house, a nice selection of breakfast and lunch dishes
Monday--lunch--La Boca - http://labocasf.com/ tapas are their thing and it is one of our favorite restaurants--two of our friends were with us and the four of us shared quite a few dishes and a bottle of the white wine that was on special (a Spanish white, I believe)--some of the highlights--a bruschetta with mushrooms, fried egg, truffle sauce that has been on the menu since they opened; grilled artichokes (just the fresh hearts/trimmed stems) with goat cheese, mint and orange; grilled pear salad with leaf lettuce, shards of a hard cheese and a balsamic dressing; a deconstructed taco, grilled chicken skewers, fries with garlic aioli, pots de creme, blood orange tart--it was like a party!
Christmas Eve--our traditional dinner at Maria's New Mexican Kitchen for tamales and one of their 500? types of margaritas http://www.marias-santafe.com/
Christmas brunch at the Anasazi restauant--http://tinyurl.com/7tdfmuu - the restaurant was very busy and even though we had a reservation, evidently people at the table we were going to get were not leaving--so we were offered the library--which was great--fireplace, Christmas, privacy, large table with wonderful leather chairs--a memorable meal, to say the least

What we did
10,000 Waves Japanese Spa http://www.tenthousandwaves.com/ on Sunday afternoon--three of us did a private tub for an hour (the waterfall tub0 then had various spa services--I had the yasuragi head and neck treatment and the ashi anma foot massage--heavenly--my husband had a massage (we had a couples' treatment room) and our friend had massage, yasurage, and salt glow

On Monday, we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum--http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/ ; the Gerald Peters Gallery http://www.gpgallery.com/ which has many museum-quality works and a couple of galleries in the railyard area--Tai Gallery (gorgeous baskets made by Japanese masters) and LeWallen Contemporary Gallery

The guys did the farolito walk up Canyon Road on Christmas Eve and we all enjoyed the hot tub at El Rey and gatherings in our room to exchange gifts, visit and toast to Christmas and friendship,

We returned home on Wednesday in lovely sunny weather. In fact, the weather was good the whole time we were there--just a little snow on Chistmas Eve - very appropriate.