Sunday, December 26, 2010

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!!


Saturday, December 25, 2010

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!

Friday, December 24, 2010

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!!


Sunday, December 19, 2010

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!


Friday, December 17, 2010

Finally....the Fit is back.

Waayyy back..
on November 17th, you read the following:
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!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

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 :-)
 


Sunday, December 5, 2010

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??


 

Friday, December 3, 2010

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!



Monday, November 29, 2010

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!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

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 :)


Saturday, November 27, 2010

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!


Friday, November 26, 2010

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!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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 :)