Wednesday, December 18, 2019

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


Pilot Knob RV Resort, Winterhaven, CA
On Wednesday, Dec. 18th 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.

18 comments:

  1. Your starting to feel all Christmassy aren't you?? Love it. Nice chairs to snuggle up in with your hot chocolate on Christmas Eve!! Hope you have a great one!!

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  2. The new chairs look great. I'm sure Bill will enjoy some great toes-up afternoons in his! :-)

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  3. Congratulations on your new chairs! Wow the fabric on your old chairs sure was in bad shape. I hope the new chair covers provide you with a long relationship with your new chairs. Merry Christmas :-)

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    1. Thank you. We aren't expecting miracles out of the new chairs because of the awesome price BUT if we get 5 years out of them they are doing better than these other pricey ones. :)

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  4. Very nice new chairs and it's interesting you had to replace them. We had a 2006 Mobile Suites fifth wheel and our two recliners had to be replaced very quickly. They fell apart. Fortunately the RV was so new, the replacements were delivered to the dealer and the dealer replaced them for us.

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    1. Thank you. The structure/framework of the chairs is very well made. The fabric covering however is what went bad far too quickly. We even had blankets on them for the most part and why only his chair? Weird. The dealer had no warranty on the furniture, we would have had to go to the manufacturer.

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  5. Nice Christmas gifts. The covers will really help preserve them. Sure would love to have some baked cookies right now..

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    1. Thanks Doug. Didn't Dolly send you with her 'sure fire' cookie recipe? :) Lots of baking going on all around, you may need to knock on some doors!

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  6. Great ending to your blog tonight that is a lovely song. Very nice chairs and they look really comfy. Merry Christmas!

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    1. Thanks Deb. I haven't heard that song for a very long time and was surprised I remembered the words. :)

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  7. Nice Christmas gift for the suite.
    Like your new recliners much nicer that the faux leather and should last longer. All our upholstery is original 20 years old just shampoo then every year or to. The recliner replaced last year because it would cost too much for brokers cables and was not comfortable any more.

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    1. Thanks George. I like the warmth of upholstery over leather but I still like the leather couch as an accent and it is comfy. Nice and firm.

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  8. Well Merry Christmas! Your chairs look great!! Good idea to get the covers. Looks like you've been cooking up a storm. I do like those recipes you just stick in the freezer. And yet another gorgeous sunset in the desert!!

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  9. Congrats on the new chairs! Love them. Sounds like a great day all the way around! Love the baking going on, everything looks yummy! Love the song too!

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  10. Good choice on those new recliner chairs, I like them. If I were at Pilot Knob I'd come by begging for one or more of your homemade cookies.

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  11. Nice chairs! Shame that the other ones didn't last very long, but I don't think many products are made to last. Yum, Christmas baking! I'm hoping to finish today with my third batch of gingerbread cake and shortbread.

    Have a great day!

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