December Full Moon Campfire and Wiener Roast

Full moon was December 28 so we planned our monthly desert campfire, wiener roast and s'mores! We had a terrific group this month with Christopher and family and our friends Ron & Elaine and their grand son Curtis joing us, Trent and Ann and Craig and Sharon. It was a beautiful day but pretty cool. Made for a great campfire though as we could really pile on the wood to stay warm!

 Hannah and Laila out in the desert. Laila in flip flops because she injured her baby toe running into the couch and her foot is too sore to put her running shoes on. She already has a cactus thorn in her sandal!

 The men decided to go for a short ride and leave the ladies around the fire to have a chat - certainly fine with us! Luke is looking pretty cool in his seat! Cole didn't want to go so he stayed behind with the ladies!

 Christopher is driving with Doug as passenger and Luke saying "get a move on fellows!"

 The fellows disappearing into the desert, Hannah with her head down looking for rocks.

 About an hour later, the guys return safe and sound

 Everyone is smiling so we know they had fun!

 It isn't even dark yet but everyone was hungry so it wasn't long before the hotdogs were roasted!

 Doug sets a great fire so we are nice and cozy

 The fellows thought we were going to have all the fire wood burned before it even got dark

 Everyone was having a great time

 These young people and their phones - can't live without them!

 Christopher decided to take Luke and Hannah for a little ride after dinner before it got dark. He had seen some bird feathers on the ground when they were riding earlier he thought the kids would like

 You would think it was cold the way Christopher is dressed!

 Laila, Cole and Trent

 The sun is finally setting

 Christopher and the kids arrive back just as the sun is setting

 Here comes the moon over the mountain

 Doug got some great pictures as it rose. Quite spectacular

 It is finally full!

Sharon, Luke and Cole as we are cleaning up ready to head in. Grandpa bought the kids head lamps to wear when they were out in the desert and they loved them. It was easy to keep track of them with those lights on. Good thinking Doug! We had a wonderful time, the kids were ready for bed and so were the parents and grand parents!

A day in the life of grand kids visiting Grandma & Grandpa

It is a good thing Grandma and Grandpa get up early in the morning as usually Hannah and Luke join us as we are having coffee. So much for the morning news...."it's cartoon time in the Dixon household" Mom and Dad don't get up till about 9am and Cole being a typical teenager, gets up about 11 am!

Hannah and Luke cuddled in a blanket watching cartoons

Me who is a neat freak is having to let go and just go with the flow. I've forgotten how quickly disorder occurs with little ones in the house!

Later in the morning, the kids want to pick oranges from our orange trees

Christopher decides to give them a hand!

Hannah gets her orange

Laila decides to pick her orange also

Hannah and Luke try to peel their oranges

Laila, Hannah, Grandma and Cole are sitting out back peeling oranges

Grandpa joins us to give the kids his professional advice about how to peel an orange. Turns out Hannah and Luke don't like fresh oranges: too many pits. Tried to get them to have a pit spitting contest but that back fired! No go - they reuse to eat the oranges. Everyone else loves them! I squeezed two jugs of fresh orange juice but they didn't like it either - give up while the goings good I say!

W@e decided to take them for a ride in our ATV out into the desert as Hannah is enthralled with rocks and wanted to go hunting for rocks. I must say Doug is quite en-genius when it comes to figuring out how to seat little ones in the ATV!

We bought child's car seat at a garage sale and they bolted it into the back of the ATV. Luke was quite taken with his seat. We had borrowed 2 other ATV's from friends who had gone home for Christmas so Hannah rode with me, Cole with Doug, and Christopher, Laila and Luke went in our ATV.

No having to coax Luke into his seat. He was in, buckled and waiting for us in a blink of the eye!

We had to stop frequewntly for Hannah to look for rocks. She was in her element. Not sure how much her suitcase is going to weight when she tries to bring them all home!

Laila, Hannah and Christopher looking for rocks in a dry wash. We had a great ride and Hannah came home with quite a collection. She wants to go again to another spot to get more rocks!

Christmas Lights at the Mormon Tabernacle Mesa Arizona

We took the kids for an outing to see Christmas lights on Boxing night. The Mormon Tabernacle puts on a fabulous display every year on their one acre property in downtown Mesa Arizona. It covers 1 square acre so we did lots of walking. We all enjoyed it very much. The kids were ready for bed after all the walking and fresh air!

 The lights were such beautiful colours and there were so many of them.

 They had a number of beautiful nativity scenes

 Lights everywhere around the pound in front of the tabernacle

 Another nativity scene along the way!

 Every turn of the path the lights just got better!

 Hannah riding on Christopher's shoulders as she was getting tired of walking by this time!

 It was hard to not take a dozen pictures it was so awesome

 Christopher and Hannah, Grandma, Cole and Luke and Laila. Doug was taking the picture. Note the cool shades on Cole!! The lights were that bright.

 The kids enjoyed the camels.

A very enjoyable evening even though it was on the cool side for Arizona!

The Dixon Grand Children arriving in Phoenix Christmas Day!

Christopher, Laila, Cole, Hannah and Luke arrived from Edson Alberta, Christmas day just afternoon. They had arrived at the Edmonton airport at 0430 am that day so they were all tired when they arrived. First visit we have had with them where they have come to our house!

The kids just after they arrived, coming out to meet Grandpa in the van we rented for their 2 week visit.

Christopher, Laila and Sharon looking like the only happy campers in this group!

 Little Luke (5 yrs old) instantly went to sleep on the drive back to Grandma and Grandpa's house

 Luke made Grandma a decoration for her Christmas tree and is proudly showing it off

 The kids couldn't get over decorating a cactus instead of an evergreen!

 They were thoroughly enjoying looking at the spikes on the cactus and anticipating having to help undecorate it after Christmas!

 We might have thought it was cold, but they headed right for the pool Christmas afternoon before a big turkey dinner!

 Talk about fish! They absolutely love the water and are in in the pool at least once a day if not twice! I can't believe how their swimming has improved in the week they have been here already

 Santa arrived for a visit with the kids just as they were leaving the pool. Lukie made shy but Hannah (6yrs) was more than happy to have her picture with Santa

We had a good first day with the kids and they were in bed early the first night after a long and busy day! More posts to come (when I can grab a couple of minutes!!)

Rancho Mirage Christmas Caroling

Every year, people in the park gather the week before Christmas to go caroling. As our community is fairly spread out, we divide into two groups, one south and one north and we go around caroling to the older people who are shut in or have difficulty getting out. It is a great time and after we sing, we go back to the club house for mulled cider and goodies. This year we invited our friends Ron & Elaine to join us and after the social at the clubhouse, we went out for an excellent Chinese dinner. It was very cool that night with a risk of frost so we had to cover our fruit and little palm trees to prevent frost damage. Makes for a lively looking backyard!!

 I had to use my Canada table cloth to cover our little palm as I ran out of garage sale sheets!

 Our oranges peeking out from under the tree. We are now eating them and juicing them. The grand kids don't like the oranges because they have seeds in them and they don't even like fresh squeezed orange juice! 

 

 We are just starting out with our caroling - still not dark yet.

 Ron, Elaine and Sharon caroling

The sun was setting and the Superstition Mountains turn a lovely pink colour

Elaine and I get to ride on the back of the golf cart between houses

Santa joined us for caroling just as we were finishing, he was the real thing too!

They announced the holiday light decorating winners and we won second place this year.The lady that won did a terrific job and deserved first prize. We were actually surprised to get second as i thought there were a number of houses that were beautifully decorated.