Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's been almost 6 weeks since I last posted!  My, how time flies!  It was a typical December - very busy.  We joined a group camp out at Pleasant Harbor RV in early December and had a great time.  Our group raised money for Trevor Project and donated several stuffed stockings to the Children's Hospital. 

We had a very nice Christmas Eve with the Cronin's and picked George up at the airport for a visit.  Christmas Day was just the 3 of us for dinner but we had several friends over for dessert and karaoke Christmas night.  It was a great time!  George left the Wednesday after Christmas while we prepared for our trip to Bullhead City for New Year's weekend.

Despite winter weather in Northern Arizona, we set out for Bullhead City after work on Thursday the 30th.  We made it in about 3 hours and 45 minutes while dealing with below freezing temperates in Kingman and Golden Valley.  We visited the Golden Nugget in Laughlin on New Year's Eve and managed to walk away with more money than we had when we arrived.  It was fun!  New Year's Eve was spent with great friends as we marked the new year in Arizona in Mountain Standard Time and in Nevada in Pacific Standard Time.  We did a lot of consuming while in Bullhead City and Laughlin, hitting the post-holiday sales at Home Depot, Lowe's and Sam's Club. 

Half of our party departed on Sunday while the rest of us stayed until Monday.  We drove through snow falling in Kingman after stopping in Golden Valley to get fuel.  We made it home in 3 hours 45 minutes with not much traffic.  Tuesday, it was back to work for a short week.

This weekend, we stayed home and spent the whole weekend taking down and putting away Christmas lights and decorations.  The house is almost back to normal and the puppies are very happy that the boxes and bins are gone.  They get really stressed out when we have the bins out - it must bring back some horrible memories from before they were ours.  Tomorrow it's back to work for a full week - our last 5 day week this month.  We have some fun travels planned for the next several weeks - both by RV and airplane!  Happy New Year to everyone!  We wish you peace, good health and prosperity in 2011!

Picture:  Discovery and Jeep at the Maverik station in Golden Valley after the fill up. 

Christmas Eve 2009

It's Christmas Eve and we had a fantastic day.  First, Dennis and I sold our Joyner this morning.  A couple from Missouri who winter in Quartzsite came to look at it and bought it.  After an hour at Bank of America (THE WORST BANK EVER!!) we finally got our money and they got their title.  The poor saps had to open a checking account because apparently you can't get a BofA cashier's check with your BofA credit card unless you have a BofA checking account.  Give me a break!  What should have been a simple transaction and notarization became an hour-long chore.  The good news is everything went through and we no longer own the Joyner.

I worked until 4 and Dennis picked George up at the airport at 2:30.  We met up at home and got ready to go to Ray & Mary's for our 5th annual Christmas Eve dinner.  Ray's mom, sister and nephew were in from New York.  We took our dogs for a play date with DD and GG.  A good time was had by all.  We had some great wine, a FANTASTIC dinner and a nice dessert (Derby Pie).  I love Christmas Even with them!  We are now watching District 9.  Not very Christmas-y but interesting nonetheless.  Our dogs are SOOOO exhausted now!! 

Tomorrow we are cooking a turkey.  It's soaking in kosher salt right now in the kitchen sink in ice water.  It's going in the oven at 9am for a 1pm dinner.  We are also making mashed potatoes (real), candied yams, stuffing, broccoli/cauliflower casserole, Derby pie and Pumpkin pie.  And don't forget the cranberry sauce and Grands biscuits.  Yum. Lyn and Dan are coming over to have dinner with us.  It will be fun!

Saturday morning it's off to Verde Valley in the motor home.  We are spending Saturday and Sunday nights there, then driving the car home Monday.  Dennis and I are heading back up Thursday after taking George to the airport and getting home from work.  We'll be ringing in the new year with our friends Bill & Dave in Verde Valley. 

We hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday and day off from work.  Whatever it means to you, I hope that it's all that you hope it to be.  Happy New Year, and raise a toast to 2010 being better than 2009!  Take care everyone!!

Saturday evening

It's been a very relaxing weekend. Today, Ray and Mary, Gabrielle and Brooke and Dawson and Geter came over to visit us at McDowell Mountain. Dennis' sister Jeannie took this video of the 4 dogs playing in the living room of our motor home. They had a GREAT time! Our boys are exhausted, and have been sleeping ever since. Poor babies! We had a nice dinner - tri-tips and potato chips (glamorous, I know!) and are now watching TV.

I hope you enjoy the video. It's a lot of fun. Take care!!