CHRISTMAS PARTIES, STUFF IN BETWEEN, CHRISTMAS

The Decor Christmas party will be Friday, December 16, which meant we had three parties that week. We started out our party week on Sunday, attending the G street  Christmas party. We met more of our neighbors and had a good time!

We had a nice dinner and then it was time for gifts!

When they called your number, you went up and chose a gift, before you opened it you had to say whether or not you were keeping it or taking  a gift someone had gotten before you. If you said to keep it, you had to open it and show everyone.

Lots of wine presents, but the two most popular presents was a martini set and a metal lizard.

That lizard and martini set  changed hands many times!

Our gift was a box of cookies.....Darrell was happy!

The South Dakota party was Wednesday. Wally Bork, Darrell's boss at Knecht's in Rapid City sat with us and introduced us. There are a lot of Rapid City folks in this park. We had a great dinner and enjoyed catching up with Wally and Linda. We were surprised to learn the South Dakota dinner is held once a month during the season.

The Decor Christmas Party was held at Mikki's house. Lots and lots of food! It was a fun time too! 

I was working on my tan, laid out once on a towel on the cement.....it was way too hard, so we went to Goodwill and bought me this lounging chair.

Sherry asked if Darrell would go with her to look at 5th wheels again. She was seriously thinking about buying one of those that we had looked at. Of course Darrell said he would, I went along to help with Baxter.

Darrell and I really loved the fireplace! It had flames!

Baxter loved it!

So, with Baxter's approval, Sherry bought it!

We were happy for her and Baxter!
Wednesday was the safety meeting at work, we all had to sign a sheet saying we would be there for that. It sounded like a big deal!  There would be pizza at the safety meeting....another enticement to come. The safety meeting maybe lasted five minutes, we had our pizza and then Santa came and gave us each presents! Mikki spoils us!!  I love working for Mikki! Again, she is so generous!
We rented a shampooer from Home Depot and  Darrell shampooed all the carpet. It looks really nice. Since arriving here we have washed every wall inside and out, ceilings, cleaned all the closets, drawers, kitchen cabinets, this was the final chore.
To my surprise, Darrell started searching the Internet for us a new fireplace.  We found one we liked and ordered it. It came the 22nd of December. We took it out of the box and plugged it in, we love it.

I had planned on going to Christmas Eve services, but it was a cold, windy, wet Christmas Eve. I decided to stay in my nice, warm house. I made scalloped potatoes to take to the Christmas dinner at Sun Life. Shari and Ron were the co-hostess and  invited us to sit at their table. Everything was perfect!

What a great bunch of folks! We had a wonderful dinner! Cal-Am provided the ham, everyone brought a dish.

CHRISTMAS PROJECTS, CANYON LAKE, CHURCH BAZAAR

I decided around the middle of November  I wanted to decorate the RV for Christmas. We have sold Christmas trees for the last five years and there was never time or energy to do any decorating. The problem was,  I only had three decorations. I looked at decorations to buy, but, living in an RV none of the commrcial decorations fit our small lifestyle. I decided I would make them. Right before we left Columbia Sun, my friend, Beth Holt made us beautiful Christmas stockings. You can't have Christmas stockings without a Christmas tree! I started searching Pinterest for ideas. I came up with seven  projects. I have no room for a Christmas tree, so I found one you hang on the wall......no wall space.....so decided to hang it on the back blinds. I started  looking for a  tree pattern,  found one we liked and enlarged it.

I was enjoying my job, really enjoy working with Dolores. I found me a church that I love! I was doing Zumba, Yoga and going to Weight Watchers.  We found some material for the tree and Darrell cut it out for me over at the Hobby Room.

I decorated the house December 5. I was happy with how my projects turned out.

The tree is Perfect!

The lighted garland around the tree really made it feel more like a Christmas tree.

It looked pretty festive!

My scrap material Christmas tree.

I went with a Snowman theme in the bathroom.

 I enjoyed making  them  and the house looked so nice!

The next day I had a Girls' Day out. Sherry asked me to go with her to look at Fifth Wheels, she said to ask if Gayle,  who lives down the street would like to go. She did!  We looked at Fifth Wheels and then had lunch at Bread Basket. It was a Fun Day!
  Two parties were coming up.....G Street Party and the South Dakota party.

We hadn't ventured out yet, so one day we decided to take a drive out to Canyon Lake. 

A beautiful lake in the middle of a desert.
We enjoyed the Christmas Bazaar at my church where you could buy baked goods for $5.00 a  pound. Darrell loaded up! I bought a cactus and a Christmas pin. We were both happy!

Careful decisions.........

They give you a plastic glove and a container, and you choose what you want. When you're done they weigh your purchases.....

What a great idea!
It was beginning to look like Christmas even in these mild temperatures!

WORK, PARTIES, THANKSGIVING

On Monday morning, Halloween Day we went over to Decor and checked in with Mikki. She hugged us both and said "Welcome Home".  We will only be working five hours each  a week until the first of the year and then we will go back to our twelve hours each a week. We are scheduled to work on Wednesdays. G street is pretty empty! We were surprised!

The lot next door to us where Kerry and John were last year is empty.

Connie is here, Rick hasn't arrived yet. We met our neighbor on the other side of us, Betty Peachy with two little dogs. She's a door slammer! We were getting settled in, got some petunias and tomatoes planted.

We went to work on Wednesday, I am working with Dolores in staging and Darrell is back in Brad's Room. After work I went to the YMCA and got a membership so I can do Yoga and Zumba. My friend , Sherry, who I met here last year,  and visited us in Washington this summer,  had to have some RV work done, so she came to the park and stayed a couple of days. She is in Florence, about an hour away, for the winter.  I got in touch with Ron and Pam, who live here and had breakfast with them one morning.
We were enjoying the hot tub and pool.

 We went to the Manager's Welcome Back Party on the 16th.

The Manager welcoming us and Jackie, the activities director.

The food wasn't the best.

Two days later Mikki had a Welcome Back Party for her Decor Team. The theme was Moustache.
It was held at Mesa Regal. It was a fun time! Everyone is so friendly on this team!

We all had to wear "our moustaches".

Joyce and her husband joined us at our table.

Our boss, Mikki and Van, Dolores's husband  is a musician, he entertained us.

We even sang a "Moustache" song! Mikki thinks of everything!!

All of us received gifts. Mikki is so generous!

Delicious Food.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner here in the park. We sat at a table of sixteen. There was supposed to be a host and hostess at each table, there were empty chairs and no one at the table were the host and hostess. The food was good, but no dressing and no gravy. Some nice lady at the table rounded us up some gravy. The best part was I didn't have to cook!