Apricity West 5

December 20, 2024 - Friday

Slept good and had to rush to go for my walk before dancing. Nothing going on today until 4pm when we go to Dot and Harvey’s to sing/play Christmas music. 

 

The “audience”, except for Rich and Dot, not seated next to Rich (who play their harmonicas) when it feels right. 

Dot and I taking a picture of each other while taking a picture of each other...

Harvey, Denny, Joanne and I played for over an hour and ended with Silent Night. Joanne debuted her new guitar - it’s a beauty and has a very rich tone. 

The feast… plus delicious meatballs and wings not pictured. I made sure to eat VERY few points during the day!

December 21, 2024 - Saturday

We got up early to go to Safeway and spend a small fortune on food. It gets expensive buying the correct items for WW. Hopefully, we don’t have to go back for a long while. When we returned, we were surprised with a Secret Santa gift on our chair. We don’t have a clue who it is, but the delicious Chex Mix is now gone and the cookies will be soon. 

I made some WW Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. I think they came out good; Rich, not so much. We hung our new Christmas Decoration with care:

Dee stopped in for happy hour and Cindy came over with 4 of her homemade cinnamon rolls. 

After happy hour, Rich and I were too tired to make supper, so we each had a roll for dinner! Afterwards, I watched The Six Triple Eight on Netflix. It was excellent and I learned so much - highly recommend watching it. Tyler Perry and Kerry Washington are phenomenal humans.

 

December 22, 2024 - Sunday

Lost weight again today, although I can’t imagine how it happened. Chillaxed as we had our 2nd cinnamon roll as a reward. I waited until after church to go for my walk. It was gorgeous t-shirt weather. I continue to assemble the granny square blanket, but can’t find all of the squares I have done. They are somewhere in this little house on wheels!

 

Tonight is the North Ranch Christmas Lights Parade. Dot invited us down to sit around a fire in her yard to watch it go by. Harvey started the fire at dark and kept feeding it mesquite to keep it roaring. 

Dot handing out Peppermint Patties (crème de cocoa, crème de mint, and Congac)…wonderful! 

The video in the body of this email is Don and Darice!

John and Geri did another great job organizing and advertising the parade - they calculate that 30 lit up golf carts and 1 tractor lined up at the Activity Center. They drive through every street in North Ranch, including the RV park; then they return to the Activity Center for snacks and hot cocoa. 

December 23, 2024 - Monday

The last line dance class before Christmas and the last day of dancing to Christmas tunes. Dee wore her light-up hat and brought her dancing gnome.

Cindy brought 4 different kinds of cookies - don’t know how she manages all of this in her 17’ motorhome! I brought one of each home for Rich and I to split. Then I went for my walk - 86 days in a row. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70’s and we sat outside for the whole afternoon. Eddi came over to wish us a Merry Christmas and wondered if we knew anyone who wears size XLT Wrangler shirts. I thought of Dwight so he and Dee came by for cocktail hour and I took him over to Eddi’s. He found 4 shirts that he liked and that fit him well.  

 

We gave Gary, friend/work camper, a couple of the cowboy cookies we got in Yarnell last week. He really liked them and said that he would try to replicate them. Well, he did a good job as he gave us two very large cookies of his own recipe. They were delicious - not exactly the same, but very close. 

December 24, 2024 - Tuesday

Went for my walk at 8:30 and then to yoga at 10am. I haven’t been in so long due to ukulele group, but we are not playing until next year. Well, it turns out the 10 o’clock class wasn’t happening today. At least I tried!

 

Quiet, beautiful day here although it is supposed to drop down to the 60’s later in the week. We sat outside most of the afternoon. Then Cindy stopped by on her way to a Christmas Eve bonfire party. She leaves tomorrow morning for Wyoming to spend Christmas with her family for five days. We will miss her...

 

Rich grilled lamb chops to have with rosemary potatoes and peas. 

Our families sent in pictures and FaceTime from the parties back home. So good to see their beautiful faces.💕

 

The online Christmas Church Service from back home was lovely, following the carols to tell the story. 

 

December 25, 2024 - Wednesday 

MERRY CHRISTMAS / HAPPY HANUKKAH

We have no plans for today, but I did walk in the chill, bake a WW dessert and continue working on my Granny Square blanket, since we found the missing squares. No sitting out today - no sun, cool temps. 

 

I ate the Christmas ornament (candy cane) 😛 after lunch. Rich made beef stew for the first time in forever. It was very good.

After dinner, Dee and Dwight brought over her cherry cheesecake and some appetizers they had at Dwight’s. 

 

December 26, 2024 - Thursday

Slept in this morning and didn’t leave the house until 8:45am to pick up a package from my son and his wife. She is a very good maker and baker of gourmet goodies; this year it was a jar of Strawberry Mango jam, Enchilada Sauce, and a box of Dark Chocolate Cayenne Nut Clusters! Soooo good! 

On our way to the Post Office, we noticed that the Flash Donut Truck was set up outside of Dollar General Grocery store, soooooooo we stopped for a 1/2 dozen piping hot, fresh made, mini-cinnamon sugar donuts. That was BEFORE we opened the package from home!

Well, I surely had to take my walk now. When I got back Gary had left us another two-pack of his latest version of Cowboy Cookies! We will definitely be pacing ourselves although I would love to in-take everything today. 

Charles, who Rich got the harmonicas from, knocked on the door to give him a microphone for playing. I did not know there was such a thing, but we have it now.  

 

Rich is making chili with ground turkey for tonight, so it’s a low point meal. We were inside until the sun came out with no wind mid-afternoon.

 

No jam today...