Tales of the Traveling Tote 45 and a Giveaway

Welcome to our 45th edition 

of Tales of the Traveling Tote.

Women from all over the country 

share where their 

MacKenzie-Childs totes have 

gone.  It is fun to see the 

travels and add places 

to your bucket lists.  

I am going to start with an 

upcoming change to our 

posts.  Starting in 2026 we 

will be only posting every 

four months instead of 

three, so we will have another 

post on January 15, 2026, 

so look forward to another 

post very, very soon. 

I also have very sad 

news to share.  Our 

beloved friend Jenna 

from Painted Apron has 

passed away.  We will miss 

her happy spirit and she 

always brought such lovely 

painted art into our lives 

and gifted us with a few 

of her pieces.  I will 

treasure those pieces that 

I have of hers. Much love 

to her friends and family 

as they miss her.

Miss Madi K and I have 

had some fun these past 

few months.  

We are on our way 

to Cabo for Thanksgiving. 

We will be joining three 

other couples who are 

empty nesters this year too. 

The Salt Lake airport 

was decorated for the 

holidays in new ways 

this year, so we had to 

stop and take fun photos.

We have a new to us 

farm to table restaurant 

that is just a ten minute 

drive from our home 

called El Huerto.  

It has a beautiful garden 

and a really unique outdoor 

covered eating space.  We 

had eaten here on our last 

visit, but only for dinner.  

On Thanksgiving we went 

here for breakfast and loved 

it even more.

We asked the waiter about 

the Chocolate Brownie Pancakes 

and he said, "They are more like 

a dessert."  We all said, "Sounds 

good to us!"  

They were amazing.

My husband ordered 

Short Rib Breakfast 

Burrito and you can see 

it was surrounded by 

a mountain of incredible 

greens.  Their growing 

gardens out front are 

so beautiful.  Our waiter 

said they have another 

farm too where they 

grow even more.

This is their Avocado Croissant!

What a fun twist on avocado 

toast.  The croissant was 

toasted on the open side. 

I think I will have to try 

making this.

Their signature dish is the 

El Huerto French Toast.

I have never had French 

toast like this.  It literally 

melted in our mouths. 

We set the table in the 

dining area for our dinner 

after a day of fun in the sun 

and spoiled ourselves with 

food we had delivered. 

One of our dear friends 

brought in her suitcase 

7 Days of Joy - a gift 

for each day for each couple. 

Today's gift was this cute 

turkey box with goodies in it. 

We started with this amazing 

shrimp salad and had 

pastas everyone picked 

for our dinner. 

This was our view of the 

sunset as we ate our 

Thanksgiving meal and 

told things we were thankful 

for.  You can imagine, people 

were especially thankful to 

be here in Cabo. 

The sunrise the next day 

was just as spectacular.

After a BYU football win, 

we celebrated Saturday 

in the pool with a great 

charcuterie. 

It was a wonderful 

Thanksgiving week.

Now on to the giveaway.

Leave me a comment below 

to have a chance to win these 

fun make up remover pads.  

As hosts, we love having 

make up remover pads 

so that guests don't ruin 

our white washcloths.  

These are so pretty and fun.

Also, spend a few minutes 

and visit our other ladies 

and see where they have been 

off to. 

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Bookish Dilettante

Those who follow me on FB 

know I was all decorated 

for Christmas before we 

left and even had a family 

party.  I had to include this 

picture of my decorated 

golf cart.  We got the 

inspiration from this from 

the Christmas Movie 

Haul Out the Holly!

Thanks for visiting 

during this busy 

time of year.

Tales of the Traveling Tote Cabo Thanksgiving

Welcome to our 29th quarterly 

Tales of the Traveling Totes. 

It's that time again where our Traveling Totes 

share where they have gone this last few 

months.  

This was an off-year for our kids for 

Thanksgiving, 

so as we were having a dinner with 

friends, they said they didn't have their 

kids coming this year either.  We all 

decided we would spend Thanksgiving, 

or Friendsgiving together in Cabo.  

The first thing they noticed was our new gate 

to the driveway of our home.  Miss Madi K 

decided to grace the gates with her presence.  

We added the gates because other cars were 

using our driveway as a turnaround and sure 

enough, someone ran into our garage doors.  

We quickly called our builder and asked him 

to add gates.  

The builder, MarCor, designed the gates to 

coordinate with the interior railing.  We thought 

he did an amazing job with his design. 

Miss Madi K also wanted to show off 

my master closet.  Certainly nicer than we 

have at home!  She feels so comfortable 

and relaxed in this fabulous closet.  

As always, going out to eat is one of 

our favorite activities here in Cabo.  

We love The Office for breakfast. 

It is down on the beach and you 

can take your shoes off and dig 

your feet into the sand.  

This year we discovered La Lupita, a new 

taco shop.  These are Wagyu Tostadas 

served in a mini smoker.  Of course, I would 

love to have mini smokers like this for entertaining. 

I did a search for them immediately online 

but didn't find anything!  I am sure they 

are custom made for the restaurant.  

Sunday we always cook at home and I 

made these Tomahawk Steaks which we 

served along with shrimp and cheese on 

mini raclette machines.  

Our big adventure this trip was a 

dune buggy ride out in the desert. 

We had a lot of fun, but they weren't as fun 

as side by sides.  They struggled in anything 

that wasn't hard-packed sand.  We thought 

we were going to get to ride them on the 

beach, but they had us stop and walk to 

the beach - haha - that wasn't what we had 

in mind when we signed up for the ride.  

But the star of any of our trips here is 

the home itself, with its beautiful 

sunrise and sunset vistas, 

and of course the pools. 

 

Now we are off to race home to 

begin all of the Christmas parties.  

Miss Madi K and I have a full month 

of fun ahead of us!  

\

Thanks for stopping by.  Now hop on over to visit our other Traveling Totes and enter a drawing for our prize this month.Deb at Mountain Breaths is hosting this month, so leave a comment on her blog to enter to win. 

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader

Cherry Kay and Carrie Ann Hall @ Entertaining Women 

We will be back in March for another adventure. 

Original Thanksgiving Menu Dinner

Welcome to our original Thanksgiving

menu feast - not your mashed potatoes, stuffing,

and pumpkin pie feast, but more closely related

to what the pilgrims would have had

with game and seafood, nuts and berries.

My husband is a Bishop in a Young Single

Adults Ward in our church

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)

and once a month members of the Bishopric

put on a Family Home Evening dinner for

the young single adults.  This beautifully attired

pilgrim couple above are our High Councilman and his

wife.  It was their turn to host and they went all out.

She wanted to have a more authentic Thanksgiving

Feast.

They rented a hall that is used for wedding receptions

and dinners - The Startup Candy Building for the feast.

It had a really cool feeling to it and we were able to

seat about 75.

The tablesetting was very casual with

silver paper plates on a white paper plate

charger, silver paper cups and silver plastic flatware.

The rustic tables and walls really added to

the theme of the dinner.

Fruits and nuts and sparkling cider were also

placed on each table.

Lesa is the foods teacher at our high school,

so she planned the menu and arranged for

Andy and others to do the cooking.  

Andy and Lesa used long salvaged boards to present

the cooked meats on.

Original Thanksgiving Menu

Venison

Roast Fowl (chicken)

Smoked Ham

Sausage

Salmon

Boiled Lobster

Breads

Assorted Fruits

Nuts

Sparkling Cider

(Salmon getting ready to go on the grill.)

Servers were asked to come up with some

kind of costume.  This is my hubby dressed

in his mountain man leathers, bringing the meats

out by candle light to the tables.

The end of each table was left open so the

serving board could be placed on the table.

The kids came up and sliced off what 

food they wanted.

You can tell these guys didn't really want their

pictures taken.

The meal was amazingly satisfying, and even the

venison was delicious.  I have had venison quite a

few times in my life and have always had it taste gamey,

but they had soaked it overnight in buttermilk and then 

topped it with beef fat and slow roasted it.  

The picture is missing the lobster.  They almost

forgot to bring those out!!!

At the very end, Andy felt the kids couldn't get by

without pumpkin pies and whipped cream, so

they did serve that.  I have to say at our table, 

people were so full and satisfied that they didn't

eat much pumpkin pie.

Here I am in my leathers too.  When we built our

cabin 25 years ago there was a local lady who

sewed leather clothing.  She is not there anymore,

so our outfits are real treasures.

What a fun way to teach the Young Single

Adults a little about Thanksgiving.  They really

enjoyed it and it was a fun evening.  I truly

didn't miss all of the modern twists - in

other words the carbs, which are my favorite

part of Thanksgiving dinner.

We have so much to be grateful for.

Our prayers go out to all those who

have suffered lately with storms and

fires and who don't have a warm home

left and who are missing loved ones.

I hope you and yours 

have a lovely Thanksgiving.

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday