Merry Christmas to Us! Puzzle Time and Happy Hour with Friends

Pilot Knob RV Resort, Winterhaven, CA

On Wednesday, Dec. 18^th I slept in. Plain and simple. I know I was awake at 4:15 and then again at 4:55 but I obviously dropped off into a very deep slumber. The next thing I knew I could hear Bill making a coffee downstairs. It was 7:20. It wasn’t light enough to walk even then, we are behind the Gila Mountain range here so it takes a bit longer for the sun to come up over it.

The sun beat us out this morning

When Bill finished, we scooted out and did close to our normal 1.5 mile walk. Back home, Bill was anxious to remove our recliner chairs from the Suite. By that, you can guess what we are getting for Christmas. I’ve probably never told you about how disappointed we are with our recliner chairs. They are Thomas Payne chairs in theatre seating style. We liked them a lot when we first bought our Suite in 2016. However, the leather is not as good as we thought, nor are the chairs.

So, the chairs are only 4 years old, right?

First Bill’s handle broke and he’s been wrestling with putting the foot rest up ever since. This has been going on since before last winter’s trip. Then we noticed that the faux (?) leather was peeling. His chair only. 

I think we just lucked out with a bad batch

After sitting on this for a couple of years, Bill feels very comfy on our new ones

It doesn’t matter that he probably sat in his more than I did mine or that a man’s body is different than a woman’s. This was very disappointing. This summer/fall I’ve noticed that the back of my chair seems to be on a permanent slant, even when I don’t want it to be. That’s hard on my back after sitting in it for a while.

So, we decided, after a search on line, at Sam’s Club (where we’ve seen some we liked), that it was time to buy new chairs. We walked into the Arizona Market last week and found the perfect chairs for us at the perfect price at the RV furniture vendor. We aren’t paying a ton of $ for them, but are quite pleased with them for a replacement. They would deliver them, remove our old ones and install the new ones. This beats our option of picking them up at Sam’s Club and lugging them in ourselves. Much easier.

We'd had poached eggs earlier but before baking, I cut up my last
Yuma Lakes orange

Today, because we wanted to vacuum in the area, Bob helped Bill carry the old seating out to our patio. Within 30 minutes, we got the call that Mattress Warehouse was just leaving Yuma with our new chairs. Yay! By 11, they were installed and Bill was Scotch guarding them. 

We (I) chose the lighter brown as an accent to our sofa
and for a change

I picked up the one chair cover at a garage sale in Y.L.
and the second one was delivered yesterday,
ordered on Amazon

We also have 2 new chair covers to further protect them. Kim dropped in and had a peek. When she saw that my chair’s foot rest was too close to the coffee table with our tree, she gave us a suggestion. It worked great!

Kim's suggestion was to turn our coffee table lengthwise
as an extension to the island
This made room for me to extend my new chair's foot rest
comfortably
Smart gal she is!

Then I started baking. First, after last night’s candied Fat Bombs, I made my sister’s recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies. They didn’t turn out too bad, although I haven’t tried them yet. Baking in a convection oven is still different for cookies so I always expect different results. They look okay. Then I made a batch of No-Bake Chocolate Macaroons. I’ve made these hundreds of times, successfully, but today I wasn’t sure they were going to stick together. Into the fridge and freezer they go! They seem to be okay after all.

Christmas Fat Bombs

Chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate macaroons

Now it was time to take a break so I walked up to the puzzle room for and hour or so. It felt cool in the room and I was anxious to get back outside in the warmth. At 2:30 when I stepped out, the clouds had taken over the sky and that made the windless air seem cool as well. Darn! I'm sure it didn't reach past 61F today. Back home, we made a tea and hot chocolate and walked next door for Happy Hour. Ken, Kim, Dave and Cheryl were also in attendance at Jo-Anne and Bob's.

Not a whole lot left to do and it is a fun puzzle

We all loved Higgins’ little Christmas sweater. The poor little guy was chilly so needed extra warmth. I remember Clemson, especially in his later years but any time after a haircut, shivering in my arms or beside me in a chair. 

Higgins curled up in his new sweater

The gang's all here - so far

 Jo-Anne picked Higgy up at one point when we pointed out the shivers and cuddled him. That made him happy. It was a good time with many topics discussed between baking, alcohol, Los Algodones, dentists and park memberships. At 5:00 we came home.

That's better Momma

And the sun started its decline but notice the blue sky returning?

For supper, we decided on shrimp in the air fryer with salad. The shrimp take all of 5 minutes, tops, and no time to put together a salad. I open a bag! I’d run out of my favourite dressing, Caesar dressing, so rather than using Bill’s French (which I don’t like) I used the China Date Ranch red raspberry vinaigrette. It was very nice for a change. Supper was good and we cleaned up dishes right away before sitting and watching a PBS special from 2012. Neil Diamond’s Hot August Nights.

Our attention was drawn to the sky
as 3 of these 'birds' flew overhead

Apache, Cobra or Black Hawk?
Bill and Ken were tryiing to decide

Look what we were rewarded with just before supper!

I asked Bill to record it as this music is stuff we both know well and love. Who doesn't love Neil? On the PVR we can skip through the PBS chatter. We enjoyed that program almost as much as we enjoyed sitting in our new comfortable chairs. Life is good! Merry Christmas to us!

I've showed you our Christmas gift to each other
but we all know that Christmas isn't about the gifts
Today, I heard and sang along to this song.
How many of you remember it by Jim Reeves?
C is for the Christ child ....
H is for Herald angels .....
R means our Redeemer .....
I for Israel .....
S is for the star ....
T is for Three wise men ...
M is for the Manger ....
A for all he stands for
S means Shepherds came

That's why there's a Christmas Day

                                                      GOOD NIGHT!

Thank you for stopping by today. If you wish to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.