CHRISTMAS 2010

Larry gave me some pretty flowers for Christmas.

For Christmas breakfast I made an egg and ham souffle. At noon we went to the activity center for a ham and turkey covered dish dinner with over 30 other couples. It was a very nice meal and I'm sorry I forgot my camera.

The gifts all around the tree.

Larry surprised me with the Nookcolor. I would love to lend books with anyone else who has one. Also any helpful hints you may have about its use.

My sister gave me a calendar with pictures of her travel with us on the Oregon Trail in August.

I am so glad to have gotten a new Journal. It is a great way of keep track where we have been, when we were there and what we did. I have filled two already. We really enjoy going back and referring to them.

Going to try and eat healthier this year! The books and the scale should help. Other gifts were new cutting boards, a RADA tomato knife (suppose to work great), and a collapsible colander (what a space saver).

This little bag is amazing. Look how big it becomes. This should be great in going to the store, maybe I'll remember to use it, since I can clip it to my purse.

I love games, books, music and puzzles for Christmas, so you can see I had a great one.

Kathy sent me Quiddler, a short word game. She has been my word guru since collage. Word games are not my strength, but always good to keep working at them. Larry agreed to play it with me Christmas evening. Amazingly I beat him twice. ( He beat me twice at Scrabble Slam, my other new game).

I couldn't believe the letters in my hand. Q,Z, E, E. and a few other crazy letters. What could I spell with them?
Hope you all had as nice a Christmas Day as Larry and I did.

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

We blew into Wilderness Lake on Sunday, December 19. It had been raining here since Wednesday. A huge storm from the Pacific hit southern California.

We got parked before the rain started up again and lasted for the next three days.

Your feet and pants were sure to get wet when walking outside the RV. This picture was taken from of our RV of the "pond" we were parked beside.

Nice lease site property!

This road was closed on Tuesday. It was covered with flowing water and a car was in the ditch.

The ducks love all this water. This canal went over the bank and closed this road out of the park. There was voluntary evacuation, but we chose to stay and luckily it didn't get any worse.

I guess this is why they call it Wilderness Lakes.

This new housing development at the end of the preserve was the hope we wouldn't get flooded out. There was a new water channel built to prevent flooding. Oops the water took out one tree.

Days later the water is way down, but strongly flowing and wearing away the land.

We can walk outside on dry land.

This dairy farm is beside the preserve and causes a lot of flies and smell. Lucky for us the wind has been blowing away from were we are parked.

I spent a few hours dancing with Faye and Cheri each morning. In the afternoon Larry and I would take a 2 mile walk stopping off at the adult center. Larry would watch some TV while I worked in the puzzle room with Linda and her husband.

BUSY DAYS AT PALM SPRINGS

There are orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees at Palm Springs TT, so during our stay we would pick a few to eat. The lower branches were pretty well picked cleaned and it was hard to reach that lovely fruit on the top of the tree.

Thursdays were pickleball ladder games. It is the one day I would play. You were assigned a group to play all three games with, each time changing partners. Larry is playing with some top players. Judy had just arrived and is known as one of the best players.

Friday night, Dec 17, we got together with Jerry and Sally and went to the Elephant Bar for dinner and then to Wildlights at the Living Desert. (We ate dessert at Costco, they have a huge hand dipped chocolate ice cream bar covered in almonds. I think we addicted Sally and Jerry to it).

There were two animal shows. After the show they let you touch some of the animals. This pygmy hedgehog was quite prickly.

Sally and Jerry call their one granddaughter Scooter so they wanted a picture of this sign.

They had a tunnel of lights you could walk through as the lights "danced" to Christmas music.

The tunnel completely lit.

There was a very large model train exhibit. There must have been ten trains running.

While we were in Palm Springs I had my hair colored with high lights and low lights at the Coachella Valley Beauty College. What a bargain at $40.00 Felecia, my student beautician, didn't realize I was to have my hair cut also. The color came out very pretty and she styled it nicely, so I've decided to let it grow a little longer.
My tooth that has been bothering me since August, and I had it checked in Arizona in September, was still acting up. So I had my teeth cleaned at a periodontist and they felt it probably would need a root canal. So off to Dr Lim for a consultation, and yes it needed a root canal. I was able to get an appointment on Wednesday at 8:30. It was tooth 7 which is the tooth next to my right front tooth. He was able to be build it up and I didn't need to go get a crown. I wanted to get the root canal done this year so my insurance would pay for it and next year it will pay for more of my implant. Thank heaven for insurance the bill was $1,266 and I paid $51.40.

Our microwave story continues, after it was installed and I went to use it a terrible noise occurred. Also when I used the sensor cook an error signal appeared, A technician was sent out to appraise it and then came again to replace the fan causing the noise and a new sensor. I now can bake but the sensor cook still says error. How this will get resolved I'm not sure - another new microwave?! We are on the move so it may have to wait till we are back in Palm Spring area.

So as you can see we had a very busy time in Palm Springs. We moved on Sunday afternoon to Wilderness Lake Thousand Trails in Menifee, CA. We have had rain and wind since we left Palm Springs and there is quite a bit of flooding. I didn't realize the lake was going to be right outside my RV!

CHRISTMAS HIGHLIGHTS

There is a street in Cathedral City which is nicknamed Candy Cane Lane for the holidays. It is the most decorated street I have ever seen. It was fun to walk down it. These pictures don't quite give you the magnitude of all the lights.

This was a real fire truck that was lighted and was driving around the neighborhood.

This was my favorite house. A tropical Christmas. Santa was in his swim trunks sunbathing.

The street was lined with these large candy canes, thus its nickname.

This little girl was fascinated with watching the elves in Santa's garage workshop.

On another street in Cathedral City was this light show. You tuned into a radio station and the lights on the house and lawn "danced" to the music. They were all LED lights.

Our motor home all decorated. The glow in the middle is a snowman. A little drab after what we just saw. We will have to work on it for next year.

Our little artificial tree.

Churches in the community put on a living Nativity at a local nursery. It was excellently done. There were about 10 stations and we were taken around to them in groups of about 50 people. It started with Isaiah prophesy about Jesus's birth and ended with the resurrection of Jesus.
These Roman soldiers harassed us while we waited in line.A puppet ministry entertained us as we waited. They were very good.

Angels singing to the shepherds and their sheep.

The shepherds with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

Herod talking to the Wise men.

The Wise men presenting their gifts to Jesus.

At the end there was a very nice market place with food and drink. crafts for the children to make and even pony rides. Very impressive.