Oh, the weeks we spent shopping, the days we spent decorating, the hours of baking and cooking we did and now its over. Thank Heaven!
Next week bathing suits and shorts will be in the stores and and a few weeks after that Halloween costumes will be back out and it will start all over.
For me, the Christmas season is much too long. I liked it much better back when I was a kid and the stores didn't decorate until November and a TV commercial having anything to do with Christmas was unheard of in October, unlike this year.
So let me bring you up to date on what we've been doing the past few days. Christmas Eve brought us the evening service that Bob and I attended. Once again, winter residents Lenny and Ginny portrayed Joseph and Mary for us.
Ginny made it quite clear that this is the LAST year they are going to do this for the Christmas Eve service so next year we'll be looking for a new Mary and Joseph. I wonder if Bob will grow a beard by then?
We had a wonderful chorus to sing for us this year. As Steve, the leader of the group liked to say, "The members of this chorus have been imported from all over the United States". And they have!
We had a very nice service and everyone seems to have enjoyed it. Afterwards there was punch and cookies and a chance to visit.
Christmas Day dawned on the chilly side and the Activities Staff was in full swing by 9:30 getting the turkeys and hams in the roasters. Of course, as George here is demonstrating, we don't do anything without our gloves on!
These are members of the Red Team and I'm wondering if they are dressed for the day or if they are taking their team designation just a tad too seriously.
While these workampers were busy getting our dinner ready there were others who were turning the Carnaval Room from this setting....
to a sea of tables and chairs so it could be transformed into this when the winter residents got done decorating their holiday dinner tables.
There may not have been more than two matching plates at any of the tables but it didn't matter. The tables were just beautiful.
Meanwhile, our turkey/ham carvers wait patiently for the bells to go off signaling its time to start carving.
Its soon time for the winter residents to arrive for dinner.
Just before dinner, much to her surprise, I called Jeannie up to the stage so I could present her with gifts from all the workampers. A collection was taken and we bought her one pair of ugly socks! I'm sorry, the woman has penchant for ugly socks and I bought these orange, yellow and pinks ones I found. In addition we gave her a decorative wall plaque and gift cards to Dillards, Olive Garden and Kohl's. No sooner had I presented this to Jeannie then Steve from the Activities Staff presented me with a card with a gift card to Olive Garden and cash inside. I was just as surprised as Jeannie was. Neither one of us saw this coming.
Once again, the turkeys were moist, the hams just dee-lish(!) and the dishes brought by everyone....well, let's just say we ate like kings and queens.
When we finished stuffing ourselves Jeannie announced the winners of the site decorating contest. The prize for this year is $100.00 each for the best decorated park model and the best decorated RV. Jeannie said that there was a hard time picking the park model because so many of them were nicely done. She's right, I too, would have had a hard time picking the winner of the park model this year. As it was there was a runner up and four honorable mentions. I'd like to mention now that the judges for this contest are people who are from outside the park. They don't know any of the residents who are here and they weren't the same judges as last year.
The winner of the park model division is ......drum roll please......
JERRY AND PHYLISS WEISSINGER! HOORAY. GO JERRY!
This picture truly doesn't do their decorations justice. There are many blinking lights and things you can't see in this picture. What makes this all the more special is that Jerry is in his 80's and I believe he did this all by himself.
The winner of the RV division is ........drum roll...............
BOB QUINN! YAY! YOU GO BOB!
This is Bob's second year in a row winning. Like last year he will donate his winnings to the Activities Fund for the luau in March. (This year we're getting roasted pigs for the luau so that will come in very handy.)
After announcements it was time for singing some Christmas carols. It seems like after every meal is eaten everyone just gets up and goes home. We didn't want that to happen this year so we sang songs to keep people longer and it worked.
By the time the kitchen was cleaned up we were all glad the day was over.
In the evening Bingo was played but I was too tired to play and just stayed home as did Bob because there was no poker this evening.
So there it is, our Christmas Day.
This brings us to Friday. Hmmmm...what did we do Friday? Oh I remember, we went looking at the park models for sale in Quail Run. I went to the office and got the keys for six that are up for grabs. Out of the six we found three that are worth a second look. I wrote down the site numbers and in a week or so we'll go back again and narrow it down even more. There are a few more for sale that we didn't get a chance to look at because the owners have gone back home for the holidays. We'll check those out too when they return in early January. There is one problem with us buying a park model. There is a rule that you can't own a park model and work in a workamper position too. Jeannie is going to go to bat for me to have that rule bent a bit because I do enjoy working in Activities and want to continue to do so. That may be a factor in whether or not we buy this year. What will we do with the RV you are wondering? Well, whatever state we're in when its time to return to Arizona for the winter we'll find a military base and put it in storage for the winter and just drive the truck back. We have given this some thought.
I'll catch up the rest of our weekend on another post.
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