Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Dec 6th to 14th - Mesa

Dec 6th – Sun
Once again I am not believing how far behind I am with the blog!!! Good thing I have our park activity calendar for reference.
Ron & Terri are getting ready to leave for just over a month. We will miss them! Ernie & Dianne are also leaving but not coming back as they sold their park model. They will be staying at their daughter's (Annette) house in Queen Creek until the end of December.
Trish organized a goodbye dinner at the Chinese buffet for Ernie & Dianne. About 40 friends were gathered at the restaurant to surprise them. They were expecting to meet just us there. They will really be missed!

Dec 7th – Mon
We took Ron & Terri to the airport this morning. Easy drive using the HOV lane. On the way back Terry figured we should go to the casino for breakfast. We did end up having breakfast for lunch there!
Harry Matthews was playing in the courtyard at 3. Terry went but I stayed home to rest a bit before going to the AZ Opry. Dianne organized a group as usual and we rode with Bob & Gail. The Opry has undergone a huge change with many new musicians who are great. There were quite a few empty seats but the show was great and hopefully word will get out and they will be fully booked again.

Dec 8th – Tues
We decorated our motorcycles for the parade again. We had the Santa faces from last year but needed something for the theme of the parade which was “States & Provinces”. We all got together at Ralph & Elsie's to make large versions of our license plates using foam core board. Everyone did something different and they turned out great. We had Washington(2), Tennessee, Michigan, Oklahoma & Ontario.
We went to MCY with North Star. Santa made an appearance as well. I had dinner ready in the crockpot so we could go to line dance lessons at 6:30.

Dec 9th – Wed
I had a haircut scheduled for noon so we had a lazy morning. We had time for a bit of shopping before going to MCY with music by Wayne & Deb. Then more laziness & TV after dinner.

Dec 10th – Thurs
Terry played golf early this morning. I considered going to Coffee & Doughnuts as Camping World was the sponsor but the propane tank ran out and by the time I switched it over and got the furnace going again, I was too darn lazy. Besides, I had a book to finish!
Ann came over with a sweatshirt that needed a bit of mending. She asked earlier if I could do it and since Bruce was golfing with Terry it worked out well today. The mending job took only a few minutes (even had the correct thread already on the machine) so we had coffee & chatted. I had the truck today so we decided to go to Home Depot for hand & foot cream and also went to BigLots. We got back just as the guys were unloading the clubs in front of our site.
I just had time to put together an appy for a block party at 3. We stayed there for an hour to meet neighbors & eat and then went to the courtyard for the last hour of MCY. Only a late, light dinner required.

Dec 11th – Fri
Truly lazy morning today! Love it! We eventually went shopping for candy to throw during the parade and also picked up a pizza at Papa Murphy's.
We danced to HotFoot in the courtyard from 3 to 5. Papa Murphy's pizza requires baking so I cut the large pizza in half and cooked it in the convection oven. The crust was darker on one side than the other and the bottom was not crisped so I put slices in a fry pan to finish them up. Not too bad.

Dec 12th – Sat
We dug out warm clothes and decorated the bike for the parade. So fun milling around on the street & drinking “spiked” coffee waiting for the parade to start. The parade entries line up on 3 streets and we were near the beginning so we didn't even have to move to another street. It had rained during the night and it was very cool. When we finished at the ballroom we considered walking back a bit to watch the rest of the parade but people began “disbanding” a couple of streets back so we just went to the ballroom for cookies, hot drinks & door prizes.
Our “Sunday” golf group played today so we joined them for lunch hosted by Brad & Clare. We finished in time to catch the tail end of MCY with Fall River.
A very light, leftovers dinner before going the Saturday night dance with music by North Star. Terri wasn't here to save a table so we got to sit with a different group and danced the night away! Ray & Vivian, Harry & Cathy and Duane & Sue came over for a drink after the dance.

Dec 13th – Sun
After coffee & games, I made the remaining pizza for lunch. This time I put the pizza on a cookie sheet instead of the paper tray provided and it was a bit more browned on the bottom.
I experimented with cooking baby back ribs in a crockpot/steamer rather than boiling them outside. They were quite meaty so I cut them apart a bit before Terry put them on the BBQ. We will go back to the usual way of cooking ribs!
Joyce came by with an offer of oranges, grapefruit & lemons so after a short visit I walked back with her up to get a small bag of fruit.

Dec 14th – Mon
I used some refrigerator biscuits from Terri to make a pull-apart type bread for breakfast. Turned out pretty good. While the oven was hot I made a crust for a dessert to be completed later. Of course we had to go shopping for ingredients first. We made a stop at Costco to order contacts and pick up a few items.
I finished putting together the dessert and then we headed to the ballroom where MCY was moved inside due to rain & cold weather. Our favorite musician – Rich Mancini – provided the music so we had a great time dancing. The ballroom filled up pretty good as word spread. An email was sent out with the change of venue but not everyone got the message right away.
We went to dinner at Dennis & Gloria's along with Duane & Sue. After a delicious dinner we played Ponytail Canasta which the women won. Another great evening with friends!

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