Here we are, on the road: CHRISTmas week at Susy's

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Lorraine's Report

It’s Saturday night and time to write for the blog. This was Christmas week and very few weeks are as busy as the days just before Christmas. It seems to me I should be slowing down, but so far, I don’t think that has happened for me yet.

Monday was spent doing laundry, baking and cooking. This park we are at is only 30 amp, so drying laundry takes longer to do. I finished four loads of laundry the next day, because of drying time.

I baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies in the convection oven and what usually took me a half hour at home, took me three hours in the convection oven in the motor home. I also put on home made chicken noodle soup for dinner. Mark, our son in law, was off for the Christmas holiday and had been watching Kaitlyn. He called around 2:30 to ask if we would mind watching her, since he had more errands to run and Kaitlyn was tired. So he came over and dropped Kaitlyn off and she helped finish baking cookies and making a double batch of See’s home made chocolate fudge. Susy had to work and she and Mark came for dinner later on. We started playing “Pass the love” game. We played each night and I’m not sure who the big winner is.

Tuesday was our day for running errands. We were all over this area and didn’t finish until 4:30 or so. Susy had Mark pick up spaghetti for all of us for dinner, everyone was tired. After dinner, we went to see the Christmas lights a park puts up each year. They charge $15.00 a car load, it took us over an hour to get in, but the displays were beautiful. This was a big money maker for the parks department.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve Day and Susy was off work for that day. She had asked us to help finish getting her home and stuff ready for Christmas, another busy day. We went out to eat after having a little party with snacks in the late afternoon. Kaitlyn was getting excited and had a hard time going to sleep.

Christmas Day, Chuck and I got up and went to Susy’s home for opening presents at 9:00 am. Everyone was still asleep, because Kaitlyn had been awake until quite late, so she slept in a bit. Kaitlyn was so excited and had a great Christmas. She got her first two wheel bicycle and a baby doll and the Little Einstein’s Space Ship. She had so much stuff, Susy and I finally finished opening presents for her. She spent the day playing with all her new toys. We thoroughly enjoyed watching her open and play with her new toys. We cooked up a nice big ham with all the trimmings for dinner.

Christmas Day was hard for me this year. I missed all the hoop la that went on at our home in Bellingham, all the years before this. Christmas is my favorite holiday and we would decorate the tree and most rooms in our old home. I would bake tons of cookies and make up at least six or seven double batches of fudge and a variety of candy for family and friends. I missed that. I missed my son, who did call on Christmas Day, after working a fourteen hour day. Thank you, Rick, it was so great to hear from you. Thankfully, Susy understood me and made it a great day for me. I appreciate all you do for me.

On the day after Christmas, Susy and I went out shopping, trying to get some bargains for next Christmas. Papa watched Kaitlyn, so even Mark could go. Dinner was at the Outback, where we all enjoyed each others company.

Today we packed up all the Christmas decorations in the motor home and took it to Susy’s home to store till next year. We then watched Kaitlyn while Mark and Susy went to the Leonardo De Vinci exhibit in San Jose. They enjoyed a little alone time; they don’t get a lot of that too often.

I’m sad because tomorrow is our last day here. We will be heading to Palm Springs on Monday. We won’t be seeing our little family here until April, or if we can convince Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn to come to Yuma or Phoenix for Susy’s birthday in February.
I am going to miss seeing my little grand daughter each day as I have for the past two weeks. We’ve seen her for two week stretches since Halloween. I know Chuck will miss her just as much as me.

I just want to wish all our family and friends a Happy, Healthy and Blessed New Year.

So until next time, bye for now. See you down the road……Lorraine

12/28/09
Chuck's Report

I hope everyone had a very Merry CHRISTmas this week. We were able to spend it with our daughter, her husband and our grand daughter. Our son is working on the Ice Road in Alaska and wasn't able to be here with us but I'm know he was here in spirit.

This was another busy week, but I don't know what we did. We were able to spend time with Kaitlyn everyday, had supper with Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn every evening. Lorraine made some cookies and fudge (like I need to eat more) that was very good. She also finished decorating our coach with the few decorations we have.

On Tuesday we went to a city park in the area to look at their CHRISTmas decorations. I think they have businesses sponsor each display. They have large generators running to supply electrical power to these displays. We went to this last year also, there was a long line of cars waiting to get in, took us over an hour's wait to get to the front gate. Sure glad I don't live in that neighborhood, there isn't a lane for residents to get to their house so they would have to wait in line also. Anyway, once we got inside the park, it was nice. There must be over 30 displays, some with lights that appear the display is moving. I've included a few pictures of the displays, they don't show up too well but get the idea across.

CHRISTmas morning we got to Susy's house to spend the day. When we got there, Kaitlyn was up and all eyes, Santa Claus had come and left her presents! She had asked Santa for a bike and a dolly and she could see the bike beside the tree. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. Once everyone else showed up, Kaitlyn jumped on the bike and rode it around the house a little bit.

Everyone finished opening their presents before breakfast except Kaitlyn, she wanted to play with the ones she had. Later on during the day, Mommy and Nana would get her to open another one or two then away she would go again. She sure had a good time.

Lorraine and Susy spent some time in the kitchen cooking a ham dinner for us. We had talked about going out to dinner but they decided to stay home and cook. It was a nice ham dinner with all the usual trimming.

Friday everyone except Kaitlyn and me wanted to go shopping for after CHRISTmas bargains. Kaitlyn and I stayed at their house, she played with her toys, rode her bike outside and we even went to the little park at their complex. After all of that, she was tired enough to just sit for awhile and watch a movie. As soon as everyone came home, she was off and running again, what energy.

Saturday Lorraine and I took down all our CHRISTmas decorations as we are going to store them in Susy's garage until next year. We were going to watch Kaitlyn while Susy and Mark go to a local museum. We get all the stuff stored, Susy and Mark take off, Lorraine and Kaitlyn start playing and I --- take a nap.

So that was our week. We enjoyed CHRISTmas and spending time with Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn. We will be leaving here this week, our plans have us returning in April for Kaitlyn's birthday party. It has been lots of fun being able to spend time with them almost everyday. We have been in/our of their lives since just before Halloween and it's time we left them so their lives can get back to normal. Although we will miss them, we do have our memories and pictures.

So this week is New Years. I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope it is a good one for all. I don't make resolutions but we do hope to see lots of our family and friends this year as we travel around. So may your New Year be happy, healthy and prosperous. Until next time

Thanks Chuck