BOXING DAY

There is not a Boxing Day in the US but we will pretend that there is and go see if any sales are on in town. I am told that their sales do not start until January sometime......
Yesterday, Christmas was a very quiet day as we did a few things in the house in the morning and then both fell asleep in out recliners for part of the afternoon. We were going to cook nice steaks for supper but then decided that we would go out for supper. I did not think many places would be open but I had heard that a place called JB's was having a turkey buffet for Christmas dinner. We got dressed and headed into town. We saw a few places like Denny's that were open and when we got to JB's we found that they were closed as the meal was at the noon time not supper time.
We thought we would drive out of town to the Franscisco Grande Hotel and see if they were open for supper. The dining room had a reserved large party there but they were serving supper in the bar.
There were only about 3 other tables with people at but we knew the food was great so we stayed.
This is the Legends bar is where John Wayne spent a lot of time, as well as a lot of legendary ball players. The room has a lot of things on display like saddles, ropes, boots and pictures, all that belonged to the Duke
You will see on the wall behind us a giant painting of John Wayne.
The meal was terrific and Harvey said his prime rib was even better than  the Beef Eater in Medicine Hat.
We did not get turkey but we also did not have snow this Christmas and all remains well.

LEGENDS Bar

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This morning as I sit looking out at the desert garden and seeing nothing but sand and cactus and an occasional palm tree, I vision each of our loved ones as they sit in their warm homes and look out at the white snow. I feel very blessed that we were able to escape the severe cold of Sask once more but also know that it is our real home and it is what makes us all strong. Spring will arrive here in the desert about March with a burst of flowers which only last a few days before the extreme heat takes over. But at home, spring peaks out a few times before it too bursts forth with a green indescribable. And it lasts 4 or 5 months.....  So as you look at the pristine white, remember what comes in a few months....

Today we will sit out on the deck and enjoy the sun, maybe watch a movie and then have steak for supper. Or we may go into town to a buffet place that is serving Christmas dinner.....we are not sure what we will do.  Many of the people in the park are getting together in small and large groups and with friends from other parks. We have been invited to some but are just staying put today but maybe go walking for a bit this afternoon.
I do not think we will be back another winter so we want to soak in the Christmas rays to store in our memories for the winters ahead.

We also will do a bit more preparation for the arrival of Shannon, Rachel and Celine day after tomorrow. They will not arrive until 9:30 at night  but will be here for the week.  It will be fun to have family here as we did last winter to break some of the tediousness of old folks lol

If you are reading this, you must be having a boring Christmas like us, but I wish you a Merry Christmas any way.
Sometimes boring is good!

HEAVEN

Yesterday we did a little drive around the park, just looking at places and doing a couple of drop offs and pickups..... I dropped off a pkg of Lefsa to our landlord whose wife is from Sweden but is not able to cook any more. I also had to borrow a prop I needed for the play from another place.  On our way home what did we spy, but a big yellow truck going around the corner and on the side it said SCHWAN'S.... Now that was even better than spying Santa and his reindeer on a rooftop on Christmas eve.  Yes Schwans is still alive and well in the US and everything looks as delicious as it was years ago when our dear Andy Corney used to sell out at the lake....and for those who know.....yes they still sell "pushups"
We hurried after him and got times and dates he is in the park and hurried home to place our order for a few appetizers etc.....We just have the small top of the fridge as a freezer so we were limited in what we could buy but we did get it all in so now no room for the baking I was going to do today.
I wonder how we did not see him last year....we were here two months....?.
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I do think we are missing something for Christmas just a little bit......This is not even cute.....
Snowmen made from tumble weeds just don't have the same effect do they?

A SUNNY SATURDAY

It is a very nice day in Arizona today..... The first day where we went into town to buy more bag chairs for happy hour outside, and we only had on T shirts and shorts and capri's  Back home to sit in the sun on the back deck until it got too hot on my face and so we went for a walk in the Deserts Gardens behind our house...... I had on sandals and of course was not watching where I was walking and a Jumping Cactus stuck into my shoe and toe.....I thought I could pull it out if I was very careful but that only made my finger bleed.... The next door neighbour saw me and came to my aid with a big pair of "pick up sticks or tongs"  He gently grabbed the little bugger and pulled it out of my foot.  

Then we were off to happy hour across the street to meet new people. Gosh we just found out you do not have to take wine to happy hour, they all had ice tea and it seemed to work well.  NOW what do we do with all the bottles of wine?  We just keep learning.......

Oh the sun is hot!

Jumping cactus plant and the little one who attacked me.



Back in the house in my chair looking at Harvey in the kitchen and the dining room

THURSDAY NEWS ON FRIDAY

None

Yesterday was quite boring.....
-- I did get my first pedicure of the season and I got sparkly nail polish to be festive.....
--Shopped for a few more things for the house
--Made cheese sausage balls for the wine and cheese at 4 pm
   ( I had bought a new cookie sheet but did not measure the oven and so the pan was too big and I    had to cook it on an angle..up on one end )
We also are having a problem with the smoke alarms going off every time I cook anything. If we put the microwave fan on high it will suck up some of the heat but even then, when ever I opened the oven to drain off the grease on the tipped end of the pan, off would go the alarms....Then, of all things the microwave just quit...We thought we had tripped a breaker but flipping that did nothing. After about a half an hour the microwave came to life again....It must shut itself off if it over heats I guess.
-- off to the wine and cheese party to sit by ourselves at a table as everyone else were in groups...
    but the wine was good and the snacks were fabulous....
--  back home to spend the evening watching TV and playing on our puters.....

Have you ever thought: 
  

If it were the other way around, would that one cat take in 80 little old ladies.

3-D FOR SENIORS

Our park calendar for Wednesday was pretty empty, so while at the mall, we stopped at the Multi Plex theatre to see what shows were running for the evening...We decided to go to Life of Pi at 7:20....
We returned home and while having some appetizers and wine, the owner of the house we are renting, arrived at our door and asked if he could show the house as he had someone interested in buying it.
We agreed and then hoped they would not want to buy it and move in right away...... We have nothing in writing that states, we get to stay for the 3 months even if it is sold....

At 6:30 we headed into town to go to the movie theatre. At this time I must tell you that we have not attended a movie in a decade so were a little naive.
First the cost...Harvey said 2 for Life of Pi please.....  I then piped in ....we are seniors.....and he said Ok  that will be $9.00 each or $18.00. .... Wow the prices have sure gone up. As we were walking around to going the door, ..it said on the wall behind the counter Life of Pi - Adult $8.50.....so my thinking is they charge more for seniors as we tend to spill more popcorn on the floor.....
We were then handed 2 pair of sun glasses..... which in a moment or two I realized they must be 3-D....Yippee....our first movie in a decade  and we get to see 3-D....The last 3-D glasses I had were those little paper ones that were red and green thin film.  

But first, we just had to have popcorn and a drink..... Surprise #2 
We ordered the medium popcorn and a large drink to share between us.  Harvey also wanted some chocolate....They did not have bars but boxes of chocolate only which were $4.00
They pulled out our cup for our large drink and we both yelled NO! It was about the size of a 2 liter bottle.....We said oh that is way too much give us a smaller one, to which she started filling the smaller one which was huge again....We figured if we drank all of that we would miss most of the show by being in the bathroom.  Then came the popcorn.......It took Harvey two hands to carry it..... The total cost for a drink, popcorn and chocolate...was $15.00  
$33.00 to go see a show .......

We then went into the theatre and got seated....the promos were already running and there was a total of 7 couples in the theatre....We certainly had a pick of the best seats in the theatre. No wonder it was empty.....$33.00 for a couple....That is 4 months of Netflix on my laptop...ha ha
Up on the screen finally popped a notice to "Please put on your 3-D glasses."
My first question, Do they go over our glasses? or do we take off our glasses.?
I put them over my glasses and it was pretty blurry... I took off my glasses and it was pretty blurry......I took off all glasses and it was pretty blurry..... I then repeated that a few times....to no better a view. I then even put my glasses over the 3D glasses....Nope!!!
The one lens was ok but the other one was black and very blurry....
So we watched awhile with one eye closed....I continued to complain to Harvey that this was not right.....People really like 3D......I am sure they can see the movie better than this.....Harvey kept reassuring me that when the main feature started it would get better.....Of course he is the ultimate optimist. 
Now the main feature started and after a few mins the man in front of us got up and went out, then a lady behind us yelled out...."Can anybody else see the screen properly" To which we all yelled NO
Soon the man returned with a worker who said we had a bad batch of glasses and they would get us new ones....We waited a few mins and more people went out.  Then 2 more workers came in and announced it was not the glasses but the projector and they would have it fixed soon.....So now we have missed the first 10 mins of the show....well, we had seen it one-eyed I guess.
Then it all cleared and we had our first wonderful look at proper 3D......It was fabulous.....

The Life of Pi was a great show, truly amazing on how they made it with the animals, and as we were leaving, they presented us, for our discomfort, a coupon for a free med popcorn next time......
Yippee more giant popcorn......to spill on the floor ........

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