Boxing Day

This is a Canadian tradition only. The day after Christmas you would take your wrapped boxes of Christmas gifts to visit your family and friends and exchange with them. It was fitting that our Canadian friends Roger and Myrna from Vernon are here and came to visit today.

Christmas Day

Well, we did something entirely different this year. Because there were 13 of us, we went off to Augustine Casino for their Special Christmas Buffet. It was delicious. We had deep fried turkey which sounds dreadful but was absolutely delicious, with all the trimmings and then some.
Here's part of the gang in their Christmas sweaters and Ron and I with our Christmas tree outside.

Christmas Eve

We are having a wonderful time with sunny days, although cool at night. There was fresh snow up on San Jacinta Mtn, very pretty.
We drove over to Cherry Valley to see Clint and Nadine and then went to George's deli for a German lunch and to shop.
We had an outdoor get together with Angeline & Roy, Debbie & Peter, and us at Barry & Joans. We even needed a thatched umbrella to keep the sun off the food.
Ron and I enjoyed our usual cold cuts, sausages and breads for our Christmas Eve dinner. Here's our 2 Christmas trees and Santa on the dash.

Laundry Day

We've very busy with all our friends and activities. I finally had to catch up on the laundry now that we're out of bathing suits and shorts and wearing real clothes and long pants often.
Sure have been having cooler weather. Some gifted artist did these paintings of local cacti on the walls of the laundry room so it's very cheerful in there. I've got used to doing 2 - 3 loads of laundry at once: wash, dry, fold and put away for another week instead of doing it 3 - 4 times a week. I think I prefer this now.

Christmas Decorations

We had a lovely get together at Don and Lila's Saturday for Lila's birthday, then a housewarming Monday for Willy and Jo at their new mobile in Desert Crest.
Ron and I went shopping and wrapped up our Christmas shopping. We hear that Santa has put presents aside for us.
The park is all decorated and just a delight to see hundreds of lights everywhere. Arla makes these Rudolph reindeer faces from the bottom of the palm fronds. This sign says Caution: Young and old at play. I had a visit with Santa Claus today.

Outdoor Happy Hour

We had an outdoor happy hour with 5 Canadian couples. We had a big rain last Saturday and the local mountains were covered with snow. We hate to admit, we were reduced to the need for long pants and Ian even put his toque on and Joan wore her gloves!!!!

Indian Powow

We went down to a local casino where the Native Indians were having their annual winter gathering. It was truly amazing. There were about 500 natives there from many different areas and a lot of singing and dancing by all. I would have loved to have known where they were born and how the elders grew up. It would have been nice to have a brochure explaining the meaning of their truly magnificent costumes.