Dec 24 -31, 2018 Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Arizona Style

Dec 24
It might be "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" but it feels different without snow and cold. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad just different and we aren't complaining lol. We have some tasks today so that we are good while stuff is shutdown for Christmas Day. Leslie did her favourite thing and did some laundry first thing while I made breakfast. Then we jumped in the truck and off to CG for propane, fuel, wash my truck and a couple items from the grocery store. It's supposed to get cool and raining later this week so we have 2 full propane tanks now. Good to go. Back home we put our exchange gifts in Christmas bags and prepped some appies for the table at the hall. We'll take Margaret for a good walk around the park and then head over to the hall for the gift exchange.
Karen & Sandy went over earlier and put paper plates at a table for all of us, they're veterans at this game, they want a good spot. Finally we have pictures of them!!

Tough selfie. My eye, Wayne, John, Sandy, Leslie, & Karen

Finally! We have had so much fun with these awesome people and we never take a dang picture! haha.

We do gift exchanges at home too but for anyone that doesn't here's the basic rules. Everyone brings a gift, at this one they are divided by male and female, but not always. We all get a ticket with a number and when your number gets called you can choose a gift to open (from the appropriate gender of course) OR if there is a gift opened already that you like then you can steal that gift. The victim of the steal can't steal it back but they can steal someone else's gift or open a new one. I think there was 114 players for this game which made it more fun and it took 3 hours to play it out. Another good rule they have is you can only steal twice on one gift. Each time it gets taken then it gets a tag. Two tags and it is frozen. So the veterans coached us to try to pick a previously stolen gift then you own it. Okay on with the game. Karen got a metal dog sculpture with a solar light that she liked and it was the second steal so nobody could take it. The rest of us got booze! Wayne and John got some fancy bourbon with glasses. Always handy at Christmas.

Dog sculpture that lights up at night.

Leslie and I got these, good score!

Almost forgot, when your number was called you had to go up front and say who you are and where you're from with the MC for the evening. He had a Christmas light jacket and pants! Very festive.

Can't see the lights very good, nice suit.

It was a fun evening and as soon as it was over we went home to bed. Santa is coming !

Dec 25

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Yeah it's awful late now but that's what we said that day ;)   We had a nice big Christmas breakfast and then took Margaret on a walk to say Merry HoHo to others we met. Had to get the High Chapparal highlight pic.

The Iron Horse with Christmas hat and scarf.

Leslie got started on some Broccoli Tots for the potluck today. If you have never had broccoli tots, google them, they are delicious. Again Karen & Sandy saved us a spot at their table for dinner. They are so nice. We walked over right at 1pm because we mistimed the tots and they were not ready until then. 

Geez John stop lookin at your phone lol. 

It was an amazing meal with the park providing roast beef and ham, mashed potatoes and gravy. Then people could sign up for desserts or veggies or whatever they wanted to bring. Sooo good. I loaded up my first plate and came to sit down at my spot and Leslie says to me "would you like to switch chairs?" Umm no I don't this is the guys side of the table, guys on this side, girls on that side, don't mess with that. Then she quietly told me to look over my left shoulder..... bahahaha. Good thing I didn't have a mouthful!!

How's your appetite Les ? Hahaha

We debated a long time before adding this pic!

Oh man that was funny! Okay we maybe should have politely said something but honestly what do say ???

The dinner was really good and with the potluck there was so many different things to choose from. The meat and potatoes was great too and this park really puts on a fun couple of days for their residents. Good stuff. Speaking of stuffed, I had serious hangover munchies and I went back 3 times to the food and twice to the dessert table. OMG! Guess what is happening next. Yep, it's couch time.

We had some facetime calls in the afternoon from family in Alberta which was great. Technology makes it easier to stay in touch for sure. What a happy Christmas!! Full bellies, family and friends around us, yep pretty darn fortunate.

Dec 26

Happy Birthday Rylan!! We recorded a birthday message and sent it through Graham to wish Rylan a happy birthday. Graham & Britt always try to make his birthday a special day so it doesn't get washed out on Christmas. Good work.

We had a leisurely morning because we have pickleball this afternoon. Time to burn off some of that dinner and dessert for the two of us. We played for about 1 1/2 hours and then arranged a happy hour in the sun in front of our rig. It's a beautiful day.

All the beginner players from this month.

Apple Pie moonshine, Crown Black and Irish Whiskey shots. Everyone had Christmas booze left over. Yikes!

Around 6 pm everyone headed back to their own rigs but Leslie and I noticed Wayne & Karen outside with John & Sandy so we just moved our chairs over to their place. We were feeling rather merry and stayed outside over there until almost 8:00! We went home and barbecued some salmon burgers for supper. It was good to add food at this point. We were almost finished eating and our next door neighbours from Colorado came home from his parents place. Well we are still feeling merry so I waved for them to come over for a drink. 

Tyler & Apryl are from Ft. Collins, Colorado and come here every year for the last 4 years to visit his parents that are in a neighbouring RV park. That park doesn't allow truck campers?? so they stay here and drive their side X side back and forth. They're younger at 44 & 36 so they only visit for a week and then drive back to Colorado. Absolute gems these two! They settled in and we talked back and forth for a few hours. We almost ran out of beer until Tyler grabbed an open 18 pack from his rig and came back! Phew that was close lol. I think they went home by 1am. We're going to pay for this one but every now and then you kinda cut loose right?

Tyler & Apryl. Thanks for the pic guys.

From one of their ATV rides.

Tyler & Apryl own an RV dealership in Ft. Collins and run a custom haying operation with their ranch. If you are in that area stop in and say I sent you. He might not remember me haha. (their RV shop link) I know we will go out of our way if we get close.

Dec 27

Oh here's a big surprise..... we only went outside to walk Margaret today. We slept in late, again no surprise. We cleaned the house a bit but mostly watched TV and drank water and ate salt and grease Ugh!

Dec 28

Feeling better today! Leslie is cleaning a little more and going for a long walk with the dog and I drove to the golf course for a run. Pulled off 5.5 km or 3 mi. Not bad for today and my leg is okay after the calf strain. Great news.

We play pickleball at 2pm but only Leslie is playing now. I'm letting my leg heal for the race. Leslie is doing great at the game and she enjoys it too. She's always liked competition so this is a perfect game for her. Plus when you commit to a group you don't tend to push it off for something else. Of course after playing there is a happy hour, this time up at Leo & Sandy's house again.

It's a little cooler today so we have 2 fireplaces ready.

We're using Leo's friend and neighbour Duane's place but he's not here lol.

How cool is this? A knitted beer cozi mitten. Hilda made them.

We only stayed for a couple and then went home for supper. I still have vivid memories of the last time.

Dec 29

I was doing some blog stuff when I got a text that I had used 90% of my data for the month?? That's weird, we have 22 Gb/ month and normally have a little left over? For some reason I used 7 Gb in 4 minutes this morning at 9:23? Leslie was out walking the dog so when she got back we both tried to figure what happened. I called Telus and of course waited on hold. While waiting I contacted our I.T. department (a.k.a. texting Dan & Shannon haha). They are both computer genius's in my eyes so hopefully they can help. Dan texted back and of course then Telus picked up. I did what I could with Telus and called Dan back. With the right questions and a little time Dan nailed it we think. I didn't shut off the auto-update feature on Leslie's computer so when I signed on and hooked to my phone it did a system update in the background. That feature is off now! Thanks Dan! So good to have a software developer in the family lol. As a bonus the tech guy at Telus gave us a Christmas present. I asked if he could give me back some of the burnt data and he said he couldn't do that but.... he changed our data package so that we get 23 Gb / month total for $30 less per month. How nice is that?? This whole process took about 4 hours and we are hungry. We are treating ourselves to lunch out. We heard about a Mexican restaurant called Anayas in Casa Grande. Can't remember who told us but it's a real hit. Food is delicious and the service was super fast. Definitely recommend it to anyone that likes Mexican food. We even bought a big styrofoam cup of their salsa, made fresh daily, to take home. It's that good.

Very colorful interior

Leslie's "Dos Amigos" shrimp and scallops in hot sauce

with rice and beans of course.

We were stuffed when we left. I had an Enchilada with rice and beans which was great too. Back to our rig with our big cup of salsa. That's what we had for supper, chips and salsa. Easy night.

Dec 30

I want to get in a last run for 2018 so I'm driving over to my fave neighbourhood by the golf course. Leslie is coming too and I'll drop her off at the Dollar store about 3km from our park. She's going to walk back. Good work. My leg didn't give me any trouble today so I increased the distance to 10km/ 6 mi which really made me happy. The race is 21.1 km/ 13 miles so I have a ways to go yet.

Leslie did more laundry and cleaning while I was gone. I showered and we went outside for a bit before she has pickleball. John hollered at me when we were outside to see if I was up for a motorcycle ride today because the weather is supposed to get cool and rain. Well. hell yes buddy, I'm up for a ride! John has a Suzuki Bergman 400cc and a Harley Street Glide. He has been wanting me to try the Bergie because he really likes it as a short distance runabout bike. Okay sure, let's go. I'm a little tall for the Bergie but it's awesome to be in the wind again!

CVT transmission and both levers are brakes, check. Gas and go.

John's Street Glide. Yeah, I like.

Time to go!

Feel a little big for it but it's a great ride.

We went for about 15 miles on some side roads to where John and Wayne go dove hunting. Let me tell ya, I was doing 70 mph/ 120km/h more than once and that bike drives straight and true. Awesome ride. Don't ask me where the hunting grounds are because we turned so many times I really don't know. We stopped and walked a little and he showed me where the doves are in the fields and the border trees. Ready to go back, he asked if I wanted to ride the Harley. Do monkeys like bananas? Yeah! I'll ride the Harley back but John has to lead because I'm a little lost. A scooter leading a Harley? Heck, I don't know anybody here anyway haha. Thanks John for a great afternoon ride!!

We joined them for happy hour but took it pretty easy and went home for supper by 6:30. That was another great day :)

Dec 31

The last day of our first retirement year. We like our new life just fine so far. Let's see what the new year brings. We are packing as much stuff as we can for the move tomorrow. Leslie did the interior and I went outside to wrap up as much as I can today. We have water in the fresh tank for tonight so I only have to dump tanks and go tomorrow. The day is cool but partly sunny so far. Tonight is supposed to be rain and cold with a wind. Forecast is for a low of 4C/ 37F here but we checked the Bonnyville forecast, -33C with a windchill of -40C or F it don't matter at that point, it's just bitter cold. Kinda happy we're here for New Years.

The New Years party at the Social Hall starts at 7pm and again we are sitting with Wayne, Karen, John & Sandy. Sandy has prepared over 100 Jello shots for tonight!! Uh oh. The band starts at 8pm so we have some time to get our dancin' shoes on. We packed a cooler and met the gang at our table where we quite soon sampled Sandy's hard work... Jello shots!

Me, John, Wayne, Karen, Sandy & Leslie

Sandy with the Jello shots she handed out to anyone willing.

We got right at the fun after a couple shots each.

Leslie ready for midnight!

Karen & Sandy

The band, Cottonwood Stash, fired up at 8 and got the dance floor going real quickly. Leslie even got me up there for a Waylon Jennings tune about 3rd song in. Lucky I had some liquid courage first. We actually danced quite often and had a fantastic time. There was a really nice woman sitting beside me that asked if we were old enough for the park haha. When I told her I am 56 she replied that she has a son 54 so I told her "that's great and I will call you Mom for the rest of the night lol."

My temporary "Mom" so nice.

A good portion of our pickleball friends are here tonight but Les and I thought it odd that Randy & Shelley weren't here. At the band intermission we needed to replenish our cooler so we detoured to their rig to see what was up and at least say happy new year. They were watching the New York ball drop on TV but we quickly talked them into coming to the dance for the real midnight. We had a quick shot while they got ready, maybe 2 actually. Just before we left their rig we got a really awesome gift from them. Randy recorded an incredibly good CD back in 1998 while trying to establish a music career. Timing and commitments didn't work out and his music career didn't go as hoped but we get this awesome disc. (Leslie and I have listened to it lots over the last couple weeks and it's a fantastic disc of Randy's own songs.)

Randy Hamilton (aka Cowboy) fantastic CD

We all walked back to the hall and had a great night. Of course we made it to midnight and a little beyond actually. Not much though because I stopped my watch at 12:39 when we crashed.

 Happy New Year everyone!! Thanks for reading our ramblings and we hope 2019 brings you health and happiness and, with luck, a life as good or better than we are living right now.

Cheers everyone.