Merry Christmas Day!

Park Place RV Park

With so many well wishes out there and wonderful Christmas greetings, I guess I got distracted with writing my daily post on Sunday, Dec. 25th. It was an awesome day from beginning to end. ♥

From east 

to west, a beautiful
Christmas Day was afoot.

Inside, our little tree is surrounded by goodies

Gibbs and I went for a walk and because Bill wasn’t going flying this morning, I stayed home to be with the family. Gibbs was anxious to see what Santa brought him so we let him open his stocking first. 😊 

Gibbs just wanted to see what was in this stocking

I had no doubt that his new green giraffe, whom Bill named Dino, would be lucky to last the day before his stuffing was strewn all over the Suite.

Dino already has a couple of holes chewed in him
I'll be operating tomorrow

We emptied our stockings and opened our few gifts next to a few surprises. I was very anxious to get my new books and new earbuds unwrapped. I hadn’t seen them since they arrived by UPS when ‘Santa’ tucked them away for me. 

Yay! movies, books, socks,
an Ammo box for Bill's plane batteries

Starting at 8:30, we called each of our children and chatted with our buddies back home as well as Marilynne. The rest of the day was somewhat of a blur but for the late morning hours, it was one filled with clock watching.

A hummingbird feeder for me
I forgot mine at home and there is one ruby-throated hummer
we've seen searching here

I'm anxious to try these on my walks
listening to podcasts
No more ear phones with wires

Usually, we don’t pay much attention to the time, neither of us wear watches when we’re down here. Today, being responsible for 10 pounds of mashed potatoes, I wanted to make sure I started cooking the two batches in Madame IP on time but not too soon. We’d eaten cereal later so skipped lunch with the meal set for 3 pm. We’d peeled and cut the spuds together around 10 so at 1:30, I started.

I'll have to explain this
Gibbs received a Bully stick in his stocking
(dog owners should know what these are)
He tried every place imaginable to hide it
Before the day was over, he ended up eating it all 
but that didn't stop him searching all those place!

Down to the wire, one batch in Johnny’s crock pot (which I borrowed) was ready at 2:45 so Bill took it over to the clubhouse and plugged it in on a ‘warm’ setting. I nipped back home around 10 after 3 to bring the second  batch, in Madame IP, back over. There were lots of potatoes and everything else to fill us all up. It was a turnout of about 35 in attendance. 😊

Lots of  food, lots of choices

The pool table, topped with the table tennis board, was adorned from end to end with pots, plates and dishes. Rick and Randy had set up electrical power which was a great idea. There were mashed and scalloped potatoes, green been and sweet potato casseroles, fruit salads, broccoli salad, devilled eggs, stuffing, carrots, peas, brown beans, rolls, turkey, ham and of course, gravy. Wow! Oh, there was also lasagna for those who like pasta with their meal.

Left around the table
Susan, John's chair, my chair, Bill, Robert, Adele

Desserts were also plentiful with pies, squares, cheesecake, cookies and more fruit salad. Yum. Bill and I shared some of a bottle of red wine which was quite nice. We sat with Susan, John (hosts) and Adele and Robert at the ‘Round Table’ and enjoyed the meal and company. 

Now that's a plateful, yet surprisingly, I wasn't stuffed

And saved room for dessert

There were gifts dispersed in order of the table numbers and John won the plentiful basket from those who participated in a donation draw. It would have been a great basket to bring home!

Bill's gift bag had a white tee shirt, no picture

Mine had a Pioneer Woman
cereal bowl
Shirley will appreciate this one! ♥

John was very surprised to win the basket
Even a $30 certificate to lunch at the Yacht Club!

Back home, Bill and I set up for a picture next to our tree. I think it turned out pretty good considering the small space we have next to our tree. 😊 ♥ We watched movies together and at 10 crawled up to bed. Actually, I wasn’t over full and ended up making popcorn around 7:30, which we shared. It was a great celebration, feeling similar to our large family gatherings back home!

From our house to yours!
Merry Christmas!
Good day!

Thank you for stopping around and I can tell from your blogs and Facebook posts that you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. ♥