Christmas Eve Day, Visit with Family, Special Buffet over Happy Hour

Pilot Knob RV Resort, Winterhaven, CA

Tuesday, Dec. 24^th found me awake early. Like at 3 am first and then thankfully I dropped off again. At 5:30 I knew I was awake for good. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was curled up in bed at 9 pm last night. No matter what I did, watch tv or read, I couldn’t stay awake. May as well be in bed and I had no problem dropping into slumber immediately for 6 hours. Our busy-ness is catching up with me. It does seem that we are go, go, go.

There is my sister's rig

 So, after waiting until 6, I got up and was happy that Bill rolled over for a few more winks. I sat in my nice comfy chair and read a few chapters of my book. Now that I’m into it more, it will be easy to carry on at night. When I’m tired is not the time to get into a new one. At 7:30 we headed out for our walk. At the back east corner of the park Bill looked over the fence and he said ‘There is Gayle and John right there!’ And so they were; closer than we thought.

The sky to the east showed a sun coming up over the mountain

Of course, we had to head that way, through the gate and go to welcome them right and proper. They must have seen us coming as they both came out in their housecoats to greet us and give us a hug. Nice to see them, here, safe and sound. They had 6 long travel days with just one day of a delay due to a minor mechanical truck issue. Thankfully, they were on their way without a large expense with the problem taken care of easily.

A promising day

We had a nice visit for an hour and a half before walking home. I made sure to invite them to our Happy Hour gathering at 3:30 this afternoon. I hadn’t had my tea yet so was looking forward to that! The rest of the day was a flurry of activity. While Bill worked on a couple more projects, I swept the vinyl floors and wrapped a couple of gifts. I did a quick dusting as well before Bill got the vacuum out.

We have grass growing on our site
'in the desert'

One of his projects he wasn’t able to complete but the second one involved removing our fireplace unit. Eeek! More dust in there so he had to vacuum that up too. Our fireplace has been acting up over the last month by running continuously, even when we shut it off. He would have to unplug the unit and sometimes that would be enough to reset it. Other times, that didn’t work. Good thing we haven’t needed it since we use the heat pump here in the park for a heat source in the evenings and overnight.

Bill has the fireplace out for a good cleanng

With the unit out of the cavity, I tested the remote control for it and things seemed to be working. Bill replaced all the little screws to put things back as he found it and we’ll just hope that the dusting did the trick. We’ll let you know! At 12:30, I walked up to the clubhouse to work on a puzzle. That 2000-pc one that was finished days ago was still taking up prime real estate. It was over a week ago that we arrived and it was on the table so, I took the initiative and packed it up in the box.

The empty cavity got a good cleaning too

Things looked great
Everything seems to be connected just fine

 Now, it gave me room to do whichever puzzle I wanted. Someone had started yet another one off to one end of the table and it was another one that I’ve already done here. I chose a 1000-pc dog puzzle. This would be fun! I managed in the hour to get all the pieces turned over and the border pieces separated. However, I was only able to get partial edge pieces assembled before I realized I needed to get home. It was almost 2 pm. Back home, I washed 6 large russet potatoes and prepared them.

Getting it ready to put it back in place

With a buffet for mid Happy Hour at Kim and Ken’s scheduled for 4 pm, I offered to take spuds of some kind. I found out since that everyone else was taking a cold dish or finger food. My potatoes didn’t quite fit in so I had to get creative to make them more ‘snacky’. Well, that just didn’t happen so I made them into Hassleback potatoes. (google it) Madame IP was my cooking tool and at 3, Bill carried first our chairs and then the appliance back to K & K’s. I would be cooking my dish there.

With a skewer through each potato, I sliced each one

I have many colourful bands for my Alta Fitbit
but they get dirty so today was the day to give them a bath

Soaking in the small sink in bleach and baking soda

Not perfectly clean but much better

There were 10 of us and when my sister, Gayle and her husband, John, arrived, it made a nice group of 12. Not exactly the disciples of the Bible but we were all there to celebrate the friendship and glad tidings of Christmas Eve.

These were just the appetizers

And the table of food
Meatballs, potatoes, salads, veggies, rolls and dips
and then desserts

There was plenty of food for all of us and the conversation ensued, as it always does. Between half of us jumping up and down like yo-yo’s to capture the ever-changing sunset, we had some good laughs and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

This is my plate of food
The potatoes turned out pretty good and I'd do them again

The winds died appropriately around the time the sun disappeared and we were well-lit (not from alcohol, although maybe close) from the glow of Ken’s festive lights on their Journey. It was around 6:30 when we all said goodnight and Merry Christmas before heading back to our Suite. G & J walked back with us and came in for a night cap. It was a nice quiet little visit before they, too, drove back around the corner to their spot over the fence.

A great group of friends (& family) today
Around the circle to the left:
Tom, Deb, Dave, Cheryl, Kim, John, Gayle, my chair, Bill, Ken, Bob, Jo-Anne

They have reserved a spot here in the park and will arrive tomorrow by noon and spend Christmas Day with all of us. It is so nice to have some family here, nice for Gayle and nice for me to have a sister close by for a few days. 

This was 6 different 'jump-ups' from my seat
and I was not alone

Ho ho ho! I hope you’ve been good and get to bed in good time. Bill washed and I dried our dishes from the day, they piled up today for some reason! The rest of the evening was doing Christmas eve things. You know hanging stockings and so on. 😉

These were a surprise to all of us
As Dave said  'Never turn your back on an Arizona sunrise - it will change'
Good night and MERRY CHRISTMAS
from Bill and I at Pilot Knob RV Resort

There is one person NOT forgotten today. Bill's 3rd daughter, my step-daughter, celebrates a birthday today. Happy Birthday, Krystal!

This was a great day. I hope yours was too! Thank you for stopping by today.