Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family. We had a great dinner with Mom and Dad. We entertained them once again in our Texas Room. It really is nice to have a fully functional apartment, even if it is small. But we have an oven and a cooktop and a refrigerator, so we can cook and heat up stuff. And even though the sink is small, Mom and I manage to do the dishes in it. And Daddy can move from the table to the sofa easily and watch the fire and the television while we clean up. And best of all, there is no hassle with crowds like over at the hall. They jam so many people into the room that you are constantly getting squished by somebody trying to get by you down the row. It's always a good time, but very hard for Daddy.

So we opted for a quiet dinner, just the four of us and the girls, who played with their kongs filled with treats! Dad especially liked watching them flip the kongs to get the goodies!

Yesterday, Saturday, was the day for me to take down decorations. I've got a list of stuff I wanted done and I didn't get it all done, but I did get that finished up. Our outside tree lost a string of lights and you can't just remove that string, you have to change the lights. All the lights on the strand were scorched, so Terry replaced every bulb to see if it would work. That did the trick, but we didn't have white lights, only multicolored, so now we have a tree with white lights top and bottom and flashing multicolored in the middle. LOL But it was an experiment to see if it was worth saving and it was. So last evening we braved Walmart and bought lots of lights on sale to replace the multicolored ones. We will wait to do that next year when we take the decorations out, but at least we have a plan. I put everything away except for my new little candle Terry got me for Christmas. I had seen it in the Texas Methodist Hospital gift shop while Terry was having surgery. I really liked it but couldn't bring myself the pay the price. I found it on line a few dollars cheaper and he bought it for me for Christmas. Score!

So the Texas Room is back in order with plenty of space. We will probably do something for New Year's even if it's just us. Mom and Dad have said they aren't celebrating, but they would probably eat some goodies if I took them some. We won't go out anywhere. The girls are doing really well with the fireworks. . . they used to be scared of the noise. . . sometimes even thunderstorms. But over the year they have become accustomed to sounds and they don't seem to be bothered by them anymore. Nonetheless, I don't like leaving them as they no doubt derive comfort from having us in close proximity.

I have been trying to do some crafty things. I made the wreath I posted about last week. I also have been doing some crocheting and knitting. I'm not making much yet, but I have been successful nonetheless. I made a two cowls using "arm knitting." It is knitting, but no needles, just your arms. LOL It does work and there are patterns for blankets, etc. They also do "finger knitting." I haven't tried that yet. I'm trying to do things with my hands because my fingers and joints are becoming arthritic and I want to keep them moving. I also made a ruffled scarf. Don't know if that is the name for it, but here is a picture. This used a wide "mesh" yarn that is really pretty easy to work with. Then I saw some "lace ruffle" scarves at a craft show and the lady told me where to get the stuff. She offered to teach me how to do it, but I found a youtube video that was surprisingly very well done and I made this last night. My big project now is to determine how to change the gauge of the ruffle and made them a little shorter. I'm having fun with it anyway!

Today it is raining and has turned colder. We've had two days of 80's and sun and now are back to 40's-50's and rain for a few days. So it's a good day for inside jobs, like defrosting the refrigerator. I also am going to try and bake myself some gluten free bread. All my last attempts ended in the trash can, so this time I bought some Pamela's bread mix. I haven't been disappointed with any other Pamela's mixes or products, so perhaps this will work. I have everything I need, so I hope this will be successful. I think today would be a good movie day too! Time to watch those couple dozen movies we have hidden away!

The year is almost over. I wish you all peace and a Happy New Year!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Better batten down the hatches!

Wind is nothing unusual here in the Rio Grande Valley. We normally enjoy a light breeze most of the time. We love this breeze. Surprisingly, it almost always has a "cool" feel to it. That is strange indeed when you have temperatures in the 80's and you have this cool breeze. If the breeze stops, though, it is hot and you will have bugs. So we like the breeze because we have no bugs! But it does promise to be challenging with winds in the 25-40 mph range and gusts up to 50. We've even heard we may have gusts up to 60. Certainly hope the canopy can weather that. I'm sure it will. I don't get nervous about it anymore. The first year we put it up, Hurricane Dolly hit the shore and we had winds of over 40 mph and she never gave up, although other awnings in the park were lost. So I think we're good. We have already secured most of our outdoor stuff, i.e, chairs, etc. I have an outside lit Christmas tree that I will bring in. I noticed the other night it has a string of lights out, so I will try to see if I can track that down.

Terry and I went out last night and looked at more Christmas lights. We went to four parks in our little compound here and saw quite a few displays. Love the golf cart ride!

 

 

Today I am going to get some preparation done for Christmas dinner. I need to make my jello salads and sweep the Texas Room, then I'm good. Terry said he has more presents to wrap, but I am done there, so we are good.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Holidays Approaching!

Since we got back from Houston, we have been doing some odd jobs. Our rear gas furnace went out in the motorhome and Terry has been researching what the problem is. He ordered parts and one day last week they arrived. He pulled the furnace, installed the new part, and it works! So glad he is handy like that. Not much he can't fix, but some stuff he won't tackle. This involved a new circuit board and he got the job done.

I have decorated for Christmas. I put up an outside tree and an inside tree and then some of my plastercraft decorations I made years ago. I have several small manger scenes, my favorite, displayed

in the Texas Room. Last Friday I joined some ladies for a class on wreath making. We made wreaths out of zip lock bags. It was easy, but it did take a lot of time. . . well, I was able to start it in the class and finish it that evening. I bought some decorations the next day and today I got it decorated. I thought it turned out very well.

I've finished my Christmas shopping. Did it all on line. Not Christmas shopping like I remember when I was younger, but more palatable in today's world. I miss shopping in the downtown area when it was cold and snowy. . . going from store to store. . . looking for bargains. Sometimes Mom and Dad would take us downtown and park on Main Street and "people watch." That was a favorite pastime when we were little. Downtown is still there, but the stores where we used to shop are no longer there. So we are all ready for Christmas. The presents are all wrapped and under the tree. The dogs have plenty to keep them occupied Christmas morning and new beds to crash on! They are spoiled, but so, so sweet.

We are hosting Mom and Dad again for Christmas dinner. We are having turkey again, but this time we bought a cooked hickory smoked turkey. Hope it's good. We just have to warm it up. We aren't having as big a dinner as we had for Thanksgiving, but it will be good anyway. We have already shopped for the groceries, so we don't have to go out for anything this week.

There are quite a few places decorated for Christmas in our park, although some of the other parks do more. I will take some pictures later when we go look. I took Mom and Dad once, but it has been colder the last couple days, so we haven't been out. But it should warm up again. Even when it is cold here, it's still in the 60's, so I'm not complaining! Just making an observation.

Till next time. . .

Dale

All is well . . .

The appointment went well in Houston with Dr. Doyle. He agreed to see Terry once a year so for now we are going to be seeing both his Indy doctor and the one in Houston. Best of both worlds! His incision has healed nicely and he is not having any issues. They interrogated the device and everything is working like it should.

We had an unexpected problem as we got in to Houston and that was Butterscotch. She got sick and was having trouble keeping food down and if that wasn't bad enough, she was having the "other" problem that follows along with the upset tummy. I spent two nights sleeping on the couch with her so I could take her out when she needed to go out. Monday we decided we would have to try and find a veterinarian in Victoria where we were planning on stopping for the night.

We left Houston Tuesday morning at the crack o'dark so we could make the stops we wanted and get in early enough to see a vet. We originally planned an appointment in the afternoon, but we got into the campground around 10:30 and I called the vet's office. They told me to bring her right in. So I drove the 4 miles over to the Victoria Animal Hospital and we were seen right away. They were very nice there and they were recommended by the campground host, so I am very glad we went. By this time, Butterscotch was definitely feeling poorly, but she was very cooperative with the doctor. She wasn't dehydrated, but clearly had some intestinal bug. The doctor gave her two shots, one for nausea, and one an antibiotic for the bad bacteria. She also gave her some oral meds which she is still on. She was clearly feeling better by the evening, but I could not feed her at all that day. Fortunately she did eat the next day and she is pretty much back to normal.

Because we were able to see the vet early, we were able to still make our rendevous with our friends, Jan and Wes. They are fulltimers as well and are members of our "Class of 2005" fulltimers. They spend the winter in Aransas Pass, Texas, and had been to Victoria for a doctor's appointment. We met them at Mumphord's Place, a BBQ joint in Victoria. Our friend, "The Texan," took us there a couple years ago and we have to go everytime we are in town! Jan and Wes enjoyed it as we did and we got to sit and visit for quite some time before they had to head back south and we returned to the motorhome and a recovering dog!

We are now back in the valley on our lot and plan to be here for a couple months, well, maybe four! So now we are getting things cleaned up and our Christmas decorations up, etc. We are enjoying warmer weather this year than we had last year and we are soaking that up!
 
While I was driving the other day, Terry snapped this picture of our girls. They are behind the driver's seat in front of the one slide. It forms a little cubbyhole back there and we put one of their cushions back there. They both like it and sometimes we find them both there!

Till next time. . .

Dale