10-44 Dec. and Christmas 2010

December started with us camping at the Indio Elks lodge again this year. The camping fees are good at $20.00 a night, but that only includes water and 30 amp elec. The dump station is on site, but that means we unhook and dump each week. But, that is better than the $50 a night (or more) the full hook-up RV parks charge.

We had to go to the Tamale Festival in Indio the first weekend in Dec. Dixie gets her tamale fix.

We spent most of the month doing Doctor check-ups. Both for Frank and fo Dixie. Some days we had two a day. We are trying to get them all done before the RV Rally starting for us on the 7th of Jan.

We also had to do some repairs at the house. The washing machine quit working and the swamp cooler was plugged up and leaking. We spent one full day working on the water cooler and cleaning off the flat roof. But, we “got her done.” Only had to go back to put on a new belt that we had to order Just the joys of being a landlord.

Aubrey spent the night with us in the RV one day when we didn’t have Dr. appointments. She is a joy to have around. Full of energy and a very social personality. Christmas Eve we spent with Ray, Nicole and kids. Frank played Santa again this year

The kids had fun opening some of their presents with Santa. Aubrey says
“Santa came twice to her house, because she had more presents in the morning when she woke up.”

Opening Presents VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We took off on Christmas Day and drove to Carlsbad, CA to spend the day and night with daughter Diane and family. Husband Mark’s parents were there as well as grandson’s Cameron and Andrew. It was a nice grown up Christmas.

Andrew and Cameron Proulx

The Christmas tree and some of the presents. Diane is getting Gidget her present from daughter Renee’ Gidget wore her Santa coat. Diane takes all day to open her presents, so even after dinner we watched her open a few last gifts.

Mark and Richard are carving the turkey.

Diane sets a beautiful table and we all enjoyed our meal together!

Gidget wants to have turkey dinner too.

We drove back to Indio the day after Christmas. More Dr. appointments on the 27th.

New Years eve we stayed off the roads and watched the ball drop in Times Square on the TV. Very quiet beginning for year 2011. We are thankful that our health is still good, that all the Dr. appointments were just for check-ups. And we pray that 2011 will find us still on the road and enjoying life. Good health, peace and happiness to all our friends.

#10-42 Thanksgiving weekend

The morning of Thanksgiving was cold and clear. The night before the weather froze and all the leaves fell off the tree, all at once. Ray raked up a big pile of leaves so his two kids could play in them. The kids jumped in them, fell into them and just had a big time playing. The day was clear, cool and sunny. Great Thanksgiving weather.

Aubrey got dressed up for dinner an is modeling out by the fish pond. She is ready for dinner.

Graham is teaching A.J. and Aubrey how to play video games. I don’t think their Mom is really all that happy about that.

The table is set and we are ready for all of us to sit down and eat.

This is just some of the food we prepared. There were three of us helping to fix dinner. Nicole, Laurie and Dixie. We had turkey and all the trimmings, three kinds of desert with choice of ice cream or whip cream! There were nine of us for dinner, and we had lots of leftovers.

Mary Beth, Laurie’s good friend for over 25 years is watching Laurie hold her grandson, Eldon. Rachel and Allie arrived home from Texas the night before and all of us gathered for breakfast on Saturday Morning. Laurie said that Eldon missed her while she was gone and had to have lots of hugs.

Eldon is starting to walk. He still uses his push toy, but he won’t be using it for long. He is adjusting the volume on the TV for his Great Grandpa.

We only had one day left of our long weekend and we ended up at Rachel and Allie’s house to make candy during the day and all of us went out for dinner.

Our last night in the high desert was Monday the 29th of Nov, so we took some steak to Rachel and Allie’s, picked up Laurie after work and had bar-b-que. Allie is a great chef.

We left on Nov 30, headed to warm weather. After a week of below freezing weather at night we were looking forward to sun and warmth.