Only 363 Shopping Days Until Christmas

Hi there~I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was a little different this year. Of course I had my family dinner on Saturday December 19th and it was a fun day. The food was all ready to serve at the same time, there was plenty of it and it was good. (even if I do say so myself.) My youngest niece was able to get here from Washington, DC the day before so we were blessed to have her with us this year. I got the three dolls finished and my great nieces loved them. My sister in law brought along the game “Apples to Apples” which we played for a couple hours. I sat in on the last hand and it was fun. I recommend it as a great family game & lots of fun, played with a group of people. We all had such a good time, just enjoying being together.

Below is the Clubhouse at my mobile home park~this is the way it looked before my family arrived.

My three beautiful blonde nieces and my daughter in law to be

Now my son has been added to the picture

Some of the gang playing “Apples to Apples.” That’s my “little” brother over on the left and Bob is back in the kitchen.

Wednesday, late afternoon we met Bob’s youngest daughter and family at a popular Mexican restaurant in Tacoma’s north end. We had a happy time with them, passed Christmas gifts back and forth before they headed out to take their little ones to Point Defiance Park’s Zoo Lights.

Christmas eve Bob and I went over to my brother and sister in law’s place. All of their kids, spouses and grand kids were there. The little kids opened their gifts and then us adults had a $10 gift exchange. I guessed the correct number so got to choose first. And no one stole my gift. It’s a beautiful cream colored throw and I love it. After the gift exchange we had dessert….they had bought an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, baked a cherry pie and my sister in law made a baked pear dessert….it was wonderful.

When we left there we headed out to Bob’s place in the boon docks. I have to psyche myself up to stay there very long as there is very limited TV (but lots of old VHS movies) and basically no internet access. YIKES!

Christmas day we woke to bright sun and 31 degrees. After individual breakfasts (I prefer my Kashi Crunch in the morning) I cleaned up the dishes and Bob climbed into the wretched sail boat to make sure the heat lamp was still on. It’s sitting on it’s trailer in the pasture in front of the house, so it’s just right there.

Around 1pm we headed out for the little community of Port Orchard. If any of you read Debbie Macomber books, that’s where she lives. However, according to her last Blog entry she and her hubby, Wayne, are now at their winter home in Florida. Anyway, we went over there to see if the China Sun Buffet was open~sure enough it was. Bob has been there before and raved about the variety and tastiness of their food.

I was amazed as we walked in at the row after row of tables of food~oh my gosh~it was amazing! On Friday and Saturday they also have a huge array of seafood besides the Chinese fare. Bob loaded his plate with crab legs and I did the same with the small steamed clams. Oh they were so good. Of course we sampled a little of almost everything they had to offer and left there feeling gorged! (There was no evening meal to cook after that feast). From the restaurant we drove into downtown Port Orchard. It sits on the shores of Puget Sound and across from the naval ship yard at Bremerton, WA. It was so beautiful down at the waterfront….the sun was shining, the water was so blue and the Olympic Mountains were sticking out behind Bremerton.

You can see the aircraft carries across the bay and the Olympic Mountains in the back ground.

So deceiving….looks like a warm summer day.

It was such a beautiful day, we took the long route back to Bob’s place. Wandering thru one little community after another. When we came thru the little town of Allyn, I asked Bob to pull over so I could get a picture of the little Allyn community church. It sits on the main road thru town with a finger of Puget Sound behind it.

One day, I’d like to travel around my area and photograph all the churches I can. They are of every size and architectural design…..this one is one of the most charming.

Christmas evening I went thru the many VHS videos he’s stocked up and pulled out “How To Loose A Guy in 10 Days.” I’d seen it in the theater but it was fun to watch it again. And I can never get too much of Matthew McConaughey.

Woke up to sun and freezing temperatures again this morning. We headed into Tacoma and were amazed at the number of cars on the road. Almost like the freeway in Los Angeles on any day……

The traffic across the Narrows Bridge was unusually heavy, I guess lots of people went “over the river and thru the woods” this year. They say the economy is bad but you’d never guess it at times. We stopped at Tacoma Costco so Bob could gas up his truck….we contemplated going into the store but the parking lot was full and cars were circling looking for a spot. Later when we were on Interstate 5 and cruising by the Tacoma Mall….once again the parking lot was packed clear to the outer fringes. Maybe it’s folks spending their gift cards~hoping to find the deal of a lifetime.

Speaking of gift cards…as requested, Santa brought me gift cards again this year. Let’s see; there’s one for Target, Wal Mart, Regal Cinema, Mc Donald’s, Fred Meyer (a large grocery/department store here in Washington) and a gift card for Zynga, which buys coins, etc for a game on Facebook. I also received Richard Paul Evan’s latest book “The Christmas List” and 3 disk DVD set of “1001 Classic Commercials.” There’s a picture of Speedy Alka-Seltzer on the front ~it should be fun to watch.

Bob’s #2 daughter and family are flying home from Cabo tonight…..so we’ll have a Christmas get together with them sometime in the next week. And then it will be time for New Year’s eve (another opportunity to watch old movies) and then the first back to work/back to school day for most (January 4th)~ my birthday.

........................until next time, Linda