Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Christmas Pictures

Pilot Knob RV Resort, Winterhaven, CA

Gone are the days when Bill and I rise early on Christmas morning because small excited children have jumped on our bed. Well, we never really had that experience since we’ve been together. Our children had either grown enough or they were with their alternate parents. Yes, that is what it is like with divorced families. But, the kid in me still had me awake on this Wednesday, Dec. 25^th.

Santa Claus found us and left a few things on our
coffee table

Our stockings were stuffed full too

I knew most of what was under the tree so it wasn’t that or the stuff crammed in my ‘Mom’ stocking. Instead, it is just the day. It’s Christmas Day! We are healthy, in a beautiful part of the country, surrounded by friends who feel like family and we even have some real family with us this year. A bonus too, although we are apart from our other siblings, parents and more importantly our children and grandchildren, is that the technology is so advanced that we get to be in touch easily.

No little feet, human or puppy, but we can still enjoy little surprises
on Christmas morning

There were a lot of goodies from Santa!
No doubt, I was a good girl.

We were up by 7 with our morning brews. I apologize to other bloggers because it wasn’t about blogging this morning for me. It was about spending quality time with my sweetie and touching base back home with our loved ones. We opened our stockings and the little surprise gifts we’d picked up for each other first. Then we began calling. Facebook Messenger provides a nice video chat so we can see who we are talking to.

And this little cutie pie was looking straight at us
Merry Christmas, Easton!

He was sure trying to figure us out on that screen

That doesn’t always work out. It does lack some of the lustre when the grandchildren aren’t interested in putting their faces on the screen for us to see. Times have changed. My two, when they were little, always wanted to talk to Grandma and Grandpa when they called and that was without video. Part of the feeling we get when we call confirms why we do what we do without guilt. Our children support our adventurous lifestyle and that is all that is important to us.

Bill and I  went for our walk 

The sun rises across the highway

Needless to say, there were 5 out of 5 grandchildren that we couldn’t even see but at least the rest made up for it, making the video chats worthwhile. I expect that connection will only get worse. Then, we called our buddies, Rob and Pat, how nice to see them, and my sister, Donna and Gerry. They were driving so no picture there. With the family business taken care of, we called our friends, Colin and Charmaine, in Langley, B.C. We hope to make it up that way on our spring trip home.

Santa (Pat) found a Santa Claus for Higgins
to chew

Higgy likes to chew his toys so I don't expect Kris Kringle to last too long
but that is okay - it is his gift to do with as he pleases

It was my turn to shower today so I took care of that and then we walked around the park. Just as we rounded the bend at the back corner, we saw John drive in with their Montana. They will be set up not too far from us at all for a couple of days. Bill and I stopped in at the clubhouse and noticed some people reserving seating for dinner. Hmmm. We need 12 places together so we did the same, knocking on doors on the walk back to suggest our friends take plates up as well.

Way too much food was put on my plate
but it was delicious!

This is a beautiful Christmas Day. Sunny skies, a light breeze and a high expected of 63F/17C. A Christmas dinner with friends and family and we don’t have to do anything but show up with our dinnerware. Perfect! So, at 2 both Bill and I got spiffed up and walked to the clubhouse. He carried the cooler bag with our bottle of wine and glasses plus my tripod. I carried my sweater and my large Canon camera. Another special moment needed to be captured on ‘film’.

My sister, Gayle, John, Bill and I together for Christmas Day

Gayle and John

Ken and Kim

Dave and..............ha ha, he was waiting for Cheryl

There she is!
Cheryl and Dave

Slowly, our friends arrived and we were seated at the two back tables, close enough to chat back and forth if we wanted. There was a nice welcome greeting by ‘Bill’ (we think his name is) and he not only said a lovely Grace for our meal, he also asked us all to say a prayer for the manager, Joe. There is something just not right, he is undergoing some health issues that need to be attended to. This makes us all sad and of course we will keep him in our thoughts and prayers.

Deb and Tom

Jo-Anne and Bob

The meal was amazing, as usual, and we all had our fill. My oh my. Why is it we never know when to stop eating? After we cleaned up our plates and had imbibed in enough wine amongst us to float a small boat, Bill helped me set up my tripod and camera. We moved some tables and I took individual pictures of everyone. First, we did couple pictures then a group photo. This is a great memory for all of us and another successful Christmas dinner at Pilot Knob.

A group picture and it turned out great

We said goodbye and walked back home. It was 5 pm and we found it quite warm inside the Suite. I took my book outside and read a couple of chapters just to cool down then I moved inside. Upstairs I read some more and then turned the 1994 version of Miracle on 34^th Street on the bedroom tv. I was happy to find one of my favourite movies to watch. Bill was watching a Hallmark movie downstairs so I didn’t want to disturb him. During commercials, I worked on my blog.

I said they could get goofy so a couple of us did

We had a wonderful day today, together, with videos and calls to family and a lovely meal with friends and family. I hope you also had a very Merry Christmas!

Good night on Christmas Night
Only now do I realize that Bill and I missed getting
our own 'couple' picture.
LOL

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