Over in a flash..

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

George and I hope that everyone had a

wonderful Christmas!

It's amazing how fast it goes by..

We really enjoyed our time with family,

and it was especially nice that Austin flew in.

Christmas eve day we woke up to a bit of snow
on the Lucia mountains.

Austin and I decided to take a drive

over to Monterey to walk around Cannery Row.

The waves were pretty high,

and the weather was nice.

Austin took me out to lunch to Lala Grill.
The views from the back window were terrific!

 Afterwards we drove down to Pacific Grove
to check out more waves.
There were a couple otters playing.

Soon it was time to go back and get ready for dinner!

George met us at my Mom's house,
then we all drove over to Steve & Martha's house.
Adam & Jennifer were there,
and we all had some appetizers before church.

Church was very nice, there was a candlelight service.

We went back over to the house to have dinner afterwards.
Adam and Jennifer were in charge of desserts,
and they didn't disappoint!
Adam was decorating a very rich yule log..

Jennifer made white chocolate mushrooms to decorate the log,
as well as sliced almonds made into pine cones.

It turned out just beautiful!
The pictures don't do it justice.
We hated to cut into it!

It was so nice to be around family..

I didn't get a good picture of Steve & Martha..
there they are cleaning up,
while Adam & Jennifer make homemade eggnog.

It was all over in a flash!

Yesterday we drove Austin to the airport,
he got back to Denver just fine.

Today we are relaxing from the frenzy :-)

Merry Christmas!

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

We've been having a splendid holiday so far.

Thursday we picked up Austin from the airport,

and on the way back stopped for dinner.

It's so nice to have him here!

One of his requests while here was to go to Phil's,

our favorite seafood spot.

Adam, Austin, my Mom, George and I all

piled into the car yesterday to go.

Phil's didn't disappoint!

It was pretty chilly despite the heaters outside,

so I had a bowl of clam chowder..

while George had his typical spaghetti :-)

 They had a beautiful tree set up..

I got a nice shot of my boys with 

a cute little photobomber :-)

Afterwards we went back to Mom's,

where the boys decided they should make fudge!

It turned out soooo good!

Adam's girlfriend, Jennifer came by after work,

and we watched old Christmas movies.

There wasn't a dry eye in the place,

we were all laughing so hard while

watching the boys in their younger days :-)

Today, Christmas Eve, we'll be

heading up to have Christmas dinner

with Steve & Martha, Jennifer's parents.

We hope that everyone has a peaceful night!

A little party fun

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

We had some more Christmas fun,

and a surprise birthday party for good measure!

Saturday night we headed up to Coyote RV Park,

where our good friends Greg & Connie are working.

They were having a Christmas gift exchange (think Yankee swap),

and Connie also surprised Greg with a birthday celebration.

We met some new couples, they are all delightful!

Connie got Greg an angel food cake with green icing,

as it was his favorite childhood memory.

70 candles make a big fire..well maybe not 70 :-)

Greg did a good job blowing them out!

Greg and Connie's daughter and son-in-law

brought the granddaughters by too.

We had such a good time with the gift exchange,

I forgot to take pictures!

I ended up bringing home a bottle of wine

wrapped in a hand made kitchen towel,

and George some Ghirardelli chocolates

and homemade dish rags.

We had a great time!

Days are winding down to Christmas now.

My son Austin is flying in from Denver on Thursday.

We can't wait to see and spend time with him!

Christmas Eve we have an invitation to go to Adam's

girlfriend's parent's house (and good friends of mine)

for a wonderful dinner.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Dancing around the Christmas tree

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

It's starting to feel like Christmas in California!

It's been cold enough overnight to run the furnace,

and we see Christmas lights on homes around

the towns of Salinas and Greenfield.

Even the RV park has put up decorations.

George and I have committed to walking

around the park at least every other day.

I'm trying to get control of my numbers,

and George is helping :-)

My Mom is doing great, 

and we drive up to Salinas every other day

to visit, do chores,

and do some things with her.

One thing I did with Mom on Friday

was to go see the Camerata Singers.

They are a local community chorus

who perform concerts in the area throughout the year.

Friday's concert was Christmas themed,

and was just wonderful!

I found this great picture of them on their webpage..

We really enjoyed it!

Last night our church had their traditional

'Dancing around the Christmas Tree'.

St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church is a

Danish Lutheran church,

and keeps up several traditions.

One of them is to form several circles

around the tree in the fellowship hall.

Holding hands, the people circle around,

each circle going opposite directions.

Everyone sings 'Nu har vi Jul igen'

with the circles going faster and faster until 

everyone is exhausted :-)

The translation is

'Now it is Christmas time,

now it is Christmas time,

and Christmas lasts til Easter'.

Of course every year everyone has to be 

reminded what to sing :-)

Pastor Hoff, a good Norwegian,

held up the lyrics!

Afterwards we sing Christmas carols in the circle,

then have a few desserts :-)

It's always been one of my favorite things to do

when we're here at Christmas.

All fixed!

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

After two long months, we finally got to

take Harvey up to Camping World 

for the long awaited repairs.

Our appointment with the metal fabricator was

 Thursday morning at 7 am.

The traffic up north is terrible,

so we decided to drive up on Wednesday afternoon,

and camp out in the parking lot.

Thursday's repair took all of 2 hours,

and we pulled it back over to CW to await

their repairs on Friday.

Thursday afternoon we met up with Greg & Connie

and dined out at Sweet Tomatoes!

Friday morning George pulled Harvey into

one of the bays to get the body work started.

While they worked on that,

we rode over to Greg & Connie's at Coyote RV Resort,

where George helped Greg restring one of his blinds.

Connie and I supervised :-)

Afterward we took a ride to pick up a few things,

then went out to dinner at BJ's.

We had a great time!

Finally at around 4 pm yesterday,

Harvey was all spiffed up, better than new!

Before..

 After..

They really did do a great job, 

and we're both happy with the results.

We pulled back in to Yanks this morning,

did some house cleaning and laundry,

and got our Christmas decorations up.

George and I have decided to stick with 

our same insurance company,

despite the run around we got.

If we switch to someone else,

we lose the replacement cost coverage

that we currently have.

So...

we raised our deductible to $1,000

and our premium isn't as bad as before.

We'll pay $2084 for the truck and trailer for the year.

Now it's time to start celebrating the season!

A new addition

Yanks RV Resort
Greenfield, CA

Today we finally pull out and head north

to Camping World for the long awaited

repairs to Harvey.

2 months ago we had a blow out on the trailer

which caused damage to the passenger side.

Why it's taken 2 months to get it finally repaired is unacceptable.

Somewhere between Camping World and NGIC insurance

lies the blame, so we're currently shopping for new insurance.

NGIC has upped our annual premium by $672!

This is after 5 years of no claims, and no significant increases.

Yesterday we did some shopping :-)

Our sofa bed in the RV is falling apart,

and is very uncomfortable to sit on anyway.

George and I have been looking for 

something to replace it with,

such as theater seating with recliners.

It had to be a specific length,

wall hugger,

and not too heavy either.

There is a local Ashley Furniture dealer,

so we looked for something there.

We found the perfect thing!

It is SO comfortable, has a great center console with storage,

and power recline!

Watching TV will be so much nicer :-)

It gets delivered in 3 weeks, we can't wait!

After shopping and taking Mom to the dentist,

we stopped to eat at a local Mexican restaurant.

You know it's authentic when everything

on the menu was in Spanish.

Good thing I took several years of Spanish,

it came in handy!

This is salsa & chips..

8 different salsas, all very hot!

I ordered carne asada,

which was excellent..

It came with refried beans, baked in a flour shell,

rice with corn, and a cactus leaf.

Yum!

Hopefully we'll be back here in Greenfield by mid-week.

Looking forward to getting our Christmas decorations out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yanks RV Resort

Greenfield , CA

We hope that everyone had a great day Thursday!

Our Thanksgiving Day was a lot of fun.

We made reservations at the Monterey Plaza Hotel

on Cannery Row, and it didn't disappoint!

Our friends Greg & Connie went with the 3 of us,

and it was nice of them to drive.

The spread was just beautiful,

with turkey, prime rib, salmon, shrimp, crab,

and different salads.

Of course there was the traditional sides

of stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc.

The dessert table was wonderful too!

There was a harpist playing in the room we were in,

and our waiter was terrific!

I wish I had gotten more pictures of the spread :-)

Afterwards, Greg took us for a drive to see the ocean..

Yesterday George and I decorated Mom's

apartment with all her Nativity scenes,

and sorted through boxes of other Christmas decorations.

Adam & Jennifer came by and helped too!

Next week we finally are getting the repairs done

to Harvey, we're so happy!