Christmas Dinner

Christmas Day turned out to be the windiest day we've had since we arrived in October. It was the highest daily average (11.5) and the highest gusts (35-40 mph). Worse, it was windy the entire day. It appears to have settled down for now - at least for this morning.

We used the time in the morning to take a walk along the lake before getting ready to go to George and Cheryl's for Christmas dinner. It was the first time we got out for some exercise in a couple weeks so the walk was good for us. The lake level is definitely higher as can be seen in this photo of the marina where the offshore islands are now almost completely covered:

Our walk took us along the bank of the lake where there are no real paths, but open enough to walk through the desert vegetation. There were lots of saguaro cactus:

and also buckhorn cactus, hedgehog cactus and ocotillo:

We left the house just before 3 pm to have dinner and Josie had made a nice centerpiece for the occasion:

The star of the whole day was the new puppy that Santa had brought for Jesse and Jason:

She is a yellow lab and they named her Traeger. It was entertaining to watch her playing outside and in the house, and she seemed very comfortable in her new surroundings:

The amazing thing about her first day in her new home is that she already goes to the door when she needs to go out to do her "duty". A neighbor friend of Cheryl came by to see the new puppy and even brought a toy for her to play with. This is a shot of the group sitting around the table following dinner:

Another surprise was how fast the puppy flopped and went almost instantly to sleep after playing with the toy:

It was a wonderful Christmas Day that could only have been better if our whole family were here. Maybe someday.

Josie goes back to work this AM but it should be a relatively short day for her. Then, it's free time until next Thursday and we return from our planned trip to western Arizona. There are only 364 more shopping days till Christmas...

Wonderful Thanksgiving

Holidays are always a good time to catch up on calls to and from family members that are miles away and too far to visit. Sometimes, that is the only contact we have with some of our relatives but it is always nice to connect with them.

The main activity was dinner at Brian and Amy's home with George and Cheryl. It was a wonderful meal and there was plenty of good food to go around. The kids, Jason and Jesse, were first to get their plates ready and they sat down at the kitchen counter:

followed by the grownups:

We even had enough food to get a "take home" package of leftovers which is a favorite part of every Thanksgiving meal. We were thankful to have such a great time with family and only wished we were able to have our complete families all together for the holiday. Maybe someday.

There is another Thanksgiving gathering tonight with old friends Cot and Lois whom we haven't seen in several years. Time really does fly. The last time we saw them was in the early days when we started out on our adventure in 2009.

It's really crazy watching the news about shoppers getting a head start on the Black Friday sales. One would never know that there was an economic crisis in this country. There were folks camping out in front of stores to be the first ones through the door when the stores open. I can't imagine anything in any store that would warrant staying up all night, outside, in cold weather to be the first to save a couple bucks. Whatever.

The only other activity we have planned for today is to pay a visit to our storage unit in Surprise to get some of our Christmas decorations. The next 30 days or so are the best time of every year with all of the Christmas activities and we are looking forward to enjoying them...