Merry Christmas Everyone

Well here it is Christmas Day evening and we are well fed and contented! It was a gorgeous sunny day today, in the mid 70's. Certainly didn't feel like a BC Christmas! We have been so busy these past few days. Last night we had a Christmas Eve party at the park hall. It was so much fun! We all brought appetizers and desserts and I have never seen so much good food in all my life! We also had a gift exchange and I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. Doug and I have never experienced a gift exchange like this. When we came into the hall, we had to leave our gifts on a big table and then after we were all well fed, we went up and picked up a gift (not one we brought) and brought it back to our table. Our park activity coordinator Karen, then read a Christmas story and every time she said the word left or right, we had to pass our gift in that direction and get a new gift passed to us. This went on for about 10 minutes and what a hoot! Finally at the end of the story, you kept the gift that ended up in front of you. What an excellent way to do it. I think we burned half the calories we ate with all our laughing. Now the really funny part: the party started at 5:30pm and we were one of the last ones to leave and it was only 8pm! I must say: these people do go to bed early!!

This Christmas morning the ladies and myself did water aerobics as "Santa Babies"

4 Canadians and 2 Americans - the water was lovely

 

We are the best - we decided we had better exercise to burn off the calories from Christmas Eve so we were ready to eat again at 1pm today when we were having our Christmas dinner. The park supplied the hams and turkeys and we all brought the trimmings. The tables were groaning again. There were still 4 turkeys and 2 hams they didn't need to carve so we are all getting together for the Canadian "Boxing Day" for left overs. Heaven help us, we will really need to exercise tomorrow!!

Everyone getting settled prior to eating Christmas dinner

 Sharon is sitting facing the camera in the middle row

Patiently waiting for the wonderful food!

Well that's all the news from Arizona....Doug and I are heading out for our evening walk to look at the stars and listen to the coyotes. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends, family and good food.

 

Christmas is upon us!

Hi everyone, thought I would update you on our activities before Christmas as things are getting pretty busy! I am leading a water aerobics class 7 days a week right now. The lady who usually does it 3 x a week has gone home to Colorado for 2 weeks so I do everyday now. Lots of fun as the weather has been so great. It is supposed to be between 75-78 degrees on Christmas day!!

The park just had a Christmas parade contest. We had to decorate our ATV's and golf carts and we paraded up and down the roads in the park. Guess what?? The Dixon's won the top prize.....a $50 gift certificate for Wal Mart. We had such fun

 

Our theme was Christmas Past & Present. Almost all our decorating items were purchased at garage sales or the thrift shop, Doug is just starting the decorating

Doug made the manger from dried Cholla cacti wood we picked up in the desert. The straw came from a pile in the far corner of the park where people traveling the US by horse stayed for a couple of nights.

The only thing we bought were strings of battery (2 AA) operated Christmas lights to put around the ATV and around the wheels. We had such fun decorating. Everybody was riding around the park trying to see what everyone else was doing. We kept the majority of our decorating a secret until about half an hour before the judging started. It was such a riot.

 

 You can see our Bethlehem star with rays coming down to the manger - looks better at night with the lights on of course. We are gradually getting the decorating done

Two little sparrows sitting on Doug's ladder watching us decorate

We are getting there

Mary & Joseph pulling out of the parking lot to head down for judging

 A little dicey dressing as a middle Eastern carpenter in the USA! 

A rear view of the baby in the cradle above the gifts

 Our stiffest competition was Santa & Mrs. Claus with their 7 reindeer on bikes

Getting ready to start the parade

 You can see our star and other lights better now as it is dark

We really did have a cool decorated ATV!

The Dixon's receiving their 1st place prize

Following the parade we had a wine, cheese and chocolate party. Great fun, excellent food and drink and lots of calories! Tonight we have a pot luck and then Christmas Eve we have a party where we all bring hot h'ordeuves and deserts and we do a gift exchange. It will be fun. We then have a big Christmas dinner with turkey and ham at 1pm Christmas day  followed by left overs Boxing Day. Talk about eat, eat, eat. Thank-goodness for water aerobics! Well, I guess that is all the news for now. Have a wonderful Christmas and I will most likely post following the big day

Computer Woes

Hi everyone - it seems like it has been awhile. My laptop got a vicious virus and has been down for a week. I just got it back yesterday. My computer had to be wiped clean and everything reinstalled so I am finally back in business!! The weather has continued to be absolutely gorgeous, about 10 degrees F higher than normal for December. I spend the day in shorts and a tank top. We have had some fun trips into the desert and we have been getting excellent sunsets due to this incredible weather

 Hawk sitting on the top of a saguaro cactus

Beautiful Sonoran Desert

Sun setting on the Superstition Mountains

We went in to Apache Junction Saturday evening December 04th for the annual Christmas Light parade. I must say, the Americans do not worry about being "politically correct" and call their parade what it is: Christmas Light parade. In Canada, we would probably call it: "Holiday Lights parade!" It was so nice to sit at the roadside and be warm - no mittens or hats or blankets..ha ha Our pictures didn't turn out too well as it is hard to catch floats moving quickly at night!

Antique car all lit up

 Santa's Sleigh

I wish this next picture turned out better as it was a terrific float. It is a Harley motorcycle with a Santa on the back with a Harley pulling him instead of reindeer

This was the float with Santa and Mrs. Claus on it but you can't see it too well

We went on a group ATV ride yesterday. Eight of us decided to go for a run out into the desert to see what was left of Arizona's largest Saguaro Cactus. Up until October it stood majestically over 70 feet tall and had over 90 arms coming off it. Scientists estimated its age to be over 300 years. There was a terrific storm October 4th with high winds and hail and it knocked a few of the arms off it and destabilized it and it fell. I am putting a before picture and a after picture.

Getting ready to leave the park, we are in the rear and you can't see us

Heading down the trail and boy did we get dusty. I left with white hair and returned with red!

Arizona's largest Saguaro Cactus

All that is left of the cactus - pretty sad

 Still pretty impressive in death

 Taking a quick snack break

We went on the hunt for a new largest cactus but this is all we could find!

 Hawk's nest between saguaro's arms

It was a fun trip although sure hot and dusty. I wasn't sure I was ever going to get all the dust off when I was in the shower. Well that's all the news for now.....

It's beginning to look like Chrsitmas

We are just coming out of a cold spell! Freezing nights and not too warm days! The sun has been shining the whole time so we really can't complain. We had a wonderful American Thanksgiving dinner. The park cooked turkeys and stuffing and we stuffed ourselves!! We had a left over turkey potluck the next night so it was great not to have to cook for 2 nights.
We had 2 mornings of frost on our car windshield but myself and couple of the other ladies still did water aerobics at 0900 in the morning. As long as we kept our wet bodies under the water.....we were warm

Water aerobics class

The ATV is running great and we have made a few trips into the desert, haven't been out for a few days due to the cold breezes but will be heading out again now that it is warming back up into the 70's

Looking at the Superstition Mountains

Beautiful sunny days with a beautiful view

Two mornings ago we looked out the window to see a air balloon going by. Now that would have been cold considering the temp on the ground was -1 degree. Very pretty to watch though

 Air balloon going by overhead

I decided it was now time to decorate for Christmas. We had been collecting items from garage sales from the last month. We figured we have spent about $20 and I am very pleased with the results. Doug did most of the work with me just telling him what to do (so what's new eh?) I don't have the patience he has. He has a couple more things he still wants to do so I'll post more pictures when he gets them done. It sure is much nicer decorating in warm weather!!

Doug decorating for Christmas

Standing back to view his handy work

Looks pretty good at night eh?

Did you notice the star above the motor home? Doug took down our windsock and put a star up. I thought that was pretty ingenious. The park has a Christmas parade on December 20 where everyone decorates their ATV and drives around the park. Afterwards there is a wine and cheese social. I guess this means we now have to go to garage sales and thrift shops again to get more decorations. We are also going into Apache Junction Saturday night for their Christmas parade so you'll have to come back to see more pictures. Stay tuned...

Frost in the Desert!!

Wow, we woke up this morning to the car windshields being frozen with ice!! It may be cold back in BC but do you guys need to send the cold our way also?? They are saying we are going to have a -1 night Thursday night. That is crazy  I don't like it.
Doug has been busy building building us some permanent steps into the motor home that are larger than the ones attached to the motor home. Of course any of you who know Doug, he went to the wood pile and got scrap wood. He just can't go out and buy wood! He also built a step to step into the ATV trailer that he has set up as his workshop. All of you that know me.......I had to go out and buy a can of paint and paint the steps to make them look a bit better!

Sharon painting the "new" steps

Newly painted, completed steps

Steps into the ATV Trailer

We finally got to pick up the ATV from the repair shop this morning. We brought it back to the RV park and I got to back it off the trailer and drive it back to our RV spot. What a difference a new muffler makes. I like the doors on the side also. Doug will be able to sneak up on me now! I used to hear him coming in the ATV from miles away.

Sharon backing the ATV off the trailer

Back to our RV site I go

One of the local stores had my favourite chocolates on sale so I bought 3 boxes. Doug just laughs as I separate the chocolates into ziploc bags and put them in the freezer so I can treat myself with a couple every once in awhile. My attempt at controlling the amount I eat each time!

Freezing my chocolates

A day in the desert

Another gorgeous sunny day. After a morning of water aerobics and Doug running errands, we decided to spend some time in the desert. Out we went in the ATV after lunch. It is so beautiful, we saw rabbits, lots of Quail and small birds.

Sonoran Desert looking towards Apache Junction

Superstition Mountains in the background

Doug taking a break while I take pictures

Occotilla, Saguaro, Paolo Verde and the  mountains in the distance

Gold Canyon in the left upper corner

After a few hours driving out in the dusty desert, Doug is ready for a cold beer. My brother Brian brought him a special beer he picked up in Utah: as the case says "you can't just have one"

No comment needed the case says it all!!