The day after..

When I was a kid, I always liked the day after Christmas. The festivities were over, but there was always

more family to visit, with the potential for more presents. As an adult, it always means things to put away, leftovers to finish eating, you know...more work!

Today, the day after Christmas, was nice. Although it was back to normal, church, grocery shopping, laundry, we had the added bonus of George's son & daughter-in-law coming over to celebrate the holiday with us.

George has two grand-daughters, Jillian & Jaelyn.

Chris & Jeanann

 George was excited, he got a bug guard for the truck.

George is so proud of his grand-daughters!!

Merry Christmas!

From reading everyone's blogs,

looks like a great Christmas was had by all..

George & I had a very nice one too!

We got up this morning, made a pot of coffee,

then ate a nice breakfast.

George lit a fire in the fireplace..

and we opened our gifts.

My Mom & Dad sent us some nice things.

George got me some very nice earrings, and 

the traditional M&M's :-)

He also loaded me up with gift cards, 

and Bath & Body lotions.

We both made a pact to 

downsize this year, no sense buying

each other things that we can't use in the RV!!

My son, Austin, bought us

Frommer's 'Exploring America by RV'

What a thoughtful present!

He's listening :-)

I decided to cook a traditional

Christmas dinner for the two of us..

turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, and rolls.

We're stuffed!!

I see on the weather that we are 

under a winter storm watch,

for heavy snow tomorrow into Monday.

Good thing I'm off Monday!!

Oh boy, I can't wait until the day

when we don't have to worry about winter storms!

Quiet preparations..

Christmas eve. Time of preparations for the birth of Christ.

I have today through Monday off. Nice! 

Poor George has to work today and Monday, so I'll get some quiet time.

This Christmas is a quiet one for me. My son, Austin, who

normally is here for the holiday, now lives in Colorado and

is spending Christmas with a new family.

George's two children have their own extended families

to be with. They will be coming over on Sunday to spend

some time with us.

I decided not to put any decorations up this year.

None outside, none inside.

We put our packages on the hearth.

Hmm, I don't see any from George...:-)

Tonight, we will go to our church's Christmas eve service.

I always enjoy it, we end it singing Silent Night holding candles.

Our choir does special music for the half hour before the service...

I'm singing in a quartet a song with Silent Night interspersed within.

Before church tonight, it's been a long tradition in my family

to go out and eat Chinese buffet.

I can't wait!!

George and I want to wish all our friends and family

a very Merry Christmas!!

Baking and such..

Yesterday George had to work, so off I went to Glamour nails. Not as decadent as it sounds..just my bi-weekly pedicure :)  I let them do a manicure as well, I usually don't, because I spend so much time on the computer, any polish chips right off.

Once I was home, I made two batches of fudge. I was going to take pictures and document step by step, but I gotta admit, I wasn't as motivated as I should have been :)  It's a terrific recipe, using marshmallows instead of marshmallow fluff. The recipe came from my Mom, from her home economics class back in high school. Family favorite :)

Today George helped me bake & decorate cookies. Now, normally I make my own dough, roll them out, etc, etc. This year I bought the pre-rolled, cut out, sugar cookies. Hey, we DID ice & decorate them ourselves!!

This is my first Christmas without one of my sons present. Since Austin has moved to Colorado, this year it's just George and me. We didn't put a tree up, lights, or anything~ (no boos or bah-humbugs from the peanut gallery!) We figure it's good practice for when we are on the road as more than likely we won't have family around then either!

Finally....the Fit is back.

Waayyy back..

on November 17th, you read the following:

What a way to wake up

about my unfortunate

hit & run.

Well, today, I'm happy to say..

I got it back from the body shop.

They couldn't take it in for work

until December 4th, and it took

two weeks!

In the meantime, the first rental 

car that I had, had issues.

On the way home from work last Friday...

the motor blew!

No oil in the car..

AT ALL!!

No idiot light came on..

Geez!

So they gave me a Dodge Charger

for my trouble :)

COOL!

It is so nice to have my little Honda Fit back.

I hate getting used to driving other cars.

They even cut the price of the balance

of the rental in half..

So I only paid $37 for 12 days!

Well, there was that $500 deductible :(

Merry Christmas!

Christmas with Diamond Rio

Every year, the company that George works for

Herr Foods, Inc.

throws a wonderful Christmas party.

There's lots of food,

entertainment,

and fun!

This year there was over 1200 in attendance!

We sat with other employees

from his branch in Wilkes-Barre.

They had buffet lines with

all kinds of salads, sides, and meat dishes.

The desserts were terrific too!

But..

the best part..

was the entertainment!

Diamond Rio!

They sang some of their older tunes,

as well as some Christmas songs.

They also played songs off their

holiday CD, 'The Reason'.

We couldn't believe that they 

would play at a company party.

We had a great time!

Every year, we have someone take

our picture in front of the Christmas tree

that they have set up in the hotel lobby.

We put it on our Christmas card :-)

 

A little bit of exciting news :-)

We made it back from California late last night.

Today has been a 'catch-up' day...

reading mail, stocking up on grocries, etc.

Tomorrow it's back to that four-letter word..

 

 WORK

 

I can't wait until we can

work because we want to, 

not because we HAVE to!

So on to our exciting news...

 

We're getting married!!

Not all of you know that George and I are

engaged...we did that in January this year.

We've been best friends for 15 years.

We've seen each other through

difficult divorces, raising children,

and other life-changing moments.

We've decided that it would be 

nice to have the ceremony performed

in my parent's church in

Salinas, California.

I used to belong there, and still

have friends there.

 

So....

 October 22nd, 2011

will be the BIG day!

Any full-timers that are in that general area

are more than welcome to be there!

Details will follow as it gets closer...

hmmmm...maybe a countdown widget

should be on the blog??

 

Birds... and a cousin come to visit.

This week sure has gone by fast!

I can't believe we are going home

on Saturday already!

This morning we were

entertained by the blue jays

that congregate outside the 

dining room window.

My Dad loves to feed 'his'

birds...he throws peanuts

out to them every morning.

I did some running around

with Adam, helping him 

get some things straightened out

at the CA DMV. That's 

always a pleasant way to spend the day!

When we got home to my parents

house, my cousin Kalene came a bit later.

She drove up from Morro Bay to visit.

She's a hoot :-)

After dinner, we took a trip

into town, and walked

through 'The Streets of Bethlehem'.

The First Baptist Church puts

on an amazing recreation of 

the birth of Christ.

There were sets recreating different

scenes of the journey to Bethlehem.

It was pretty incredible.

On the way back to their house,

we stopped off where my son

works as a barista. He

treated us all to specialty 

coffees, yum!

 

We all had a fun night!

San Juan Bautista

Today we took a short ride

to the little town of

San Juan Bautista.

One of the 21 California missions

is there.

This mission is the 15th,

built in 1797 right over

the San Andreas fault.

We wandered through the mission itself,

then outside in the gardens.

We made friends with this guy:

He was crowing all the time,

and it was 1 in the afternoon!

Of course we had to find

a place to eat.

One of my favorite places is

Jardines..great Mexican food!

San Juan Bautista is a cute

little town, with several antique stores, 

and a great bakery.

My favorite thing, however,

is the fact that chickens and roosters

run around the streets!

A very nice day!

Flora & fauna, right in the backyard!

What a nice day in sunny Prunedale, CA!

We woke up to nice sunny skies.

Today we went to church where I used to attend

when living here. My parents still go there...

St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church.

Sound Danish? It is! 

Now you know where I got the Abelskiver recipe from.

It was nice to see some of my old friends there.

After my Mom & Dad took George, my son, Adam, and me

out to lunch to a place called 'Element'.

Oh boy, was it ever good! I forget how good

food in California is.

While everyone was dozing off,

I went out into the back yard to 

shoot some pictures.

They live on an acre, so there's a lot

of birds, deer, and other critters out there.

These black tail deers decided to feast

on the plants my parents have in barrels. 

Doesn't appear that the wire netting does any good!

They are so cute!

My Mom (Leanne) grows some nice lime trees in barrels.

Nice & peaceful :)

Let the decorating begin!

This morning my Mom treated us to homemade Abelskivers.

What's an Abelskiver, you ask?

It's a danish 'donut'..well

sorta..

You mix flour, buttermilk, egg, and

a stiffly beaten egg white.

Then the dough goes in a 

goofy looking Abelskiver pan.

The dough is put into the

little indentations of the pan.

As the dough cooks, it needs to be turned

in the pan carefully, until they are a golden brown.

They are served with powdered sugar,

and several jams or jellies to dip them in.

Yum!!

Afterwards, we put together the

tree, and decorated that. 

My Mom and Adam

put up the strings of silver beads.

I finished helping with that job,

and George put the star on top.

Afterwards, Adam caught up

on my blog. He thinks it is pretty cool!

The tree is ready for the season!

Thanksgiving in California...

Well we finally made it to

California!

No issues at the airports..

No groping, frisking, 

none of the stuff 

that made the news.

The airports weren't that

busy, I guess that most were already

to their destinations by then.

My son, Adam, and my Dad

picked us up at the airport

while my Mom stayed behind, 

getting things ready for the

big dinner.

Dad & Adam peeled potatoes..

My job is to mash them.

Everyone had a job to do!

George's was taking pictures :)

Table looked nice!

We had a nice time sharing

food, fun stories, 

and pictures from holidays past.

Hope everyone had a great 

Thanksgiving!

Pat down or full body scan. Decisions, decisions!

Thursday morning, at 6 am

we will be flying across the country

to be with Laurie's family

for the holiday.

This includes her Mother & Father, 

and oldest son, Adam.

On the way, we

 will be stopping in 

Chicago..

Denver..

then finally ending

in San Jose..

which is

and hour or so

from their house.

We are hoping for

an uneventful flight!

No pat downs,

nekkid body scans,

or sleeping over in

Chicago.

Stay tuned for further developments :)