Indio

We landed in Indio (Palm Springs CA area) on the 23rd. Despite this and surrounding areas having had torrential rains, we arrived to sun, warmth and dry conditions. In fact the drive down (2,000 miles) was uneventful as compared to last year which was totally treacherous! We just have not been doing too much of anything exciting hence no post until now, just relaxing and getting settled.

I had to take a shot of our high class campsite where we stayed the day before arriving in Indio. Truck stops come in handy when it's late and you really don't want to pay for a campsite for a few hours of sleep.

Yep, this looks much better doesn't it? This is a shot looking from the back of our site. Through the greenery you can see the mountains. In fact the mountains are visible no matter which way we look.

We are enjoying our time with our our friends Mikey and Jan. While with them there is never a dull moment or lack of yummy food. Even though they live in their motor home Jan always has good stuff in her fridge.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a great meal of turkey and all the fixins at the clubhouse in the park and then Christmas Day Jan made brunch. Here is the centerpiece for our picnic table.
And of course there were gifts. David is wondering what this particular gift was. It's a handy dandy sewer hose holder, something that is much needed for life on the road.
And then there were games of Mexican Train. This is one of those games that poor David just can't seem to win.
It was a nice Christmas on the road and made missing our kids and grand kids much easier to take.
We are here until January 4th and then off to Yuma. More from the warmth and sunshine later.

An Early Christmas

Once again Lenny and Kelly opened their home for our Christmas get together. We are a small bunch but we do have a nice day. We had Great Grandpa Bob, Auntie Kelly and Great Grandma Loi with us again this year. Despite illnesses, both girls were on antibiotics, it was a very relaxing enjoyable day. Thanks once again Leonard family for making this another memorable holiday.

Christmas in Minnesota this year was chock full of snow which gave Lenny plenty of opportunity to 'play' with his new snow blower. He enjoyed it that round but given all of the snow that they have gotten and are going to get I suspect 'enjoyment' will not long be the name of the game.

An absolutely gorgeous winter sunset.

This year Julia was old enough to enjoy Christmas. When I woke her up from her nap the first words out of her mouth were, "Is my party ready"? We had told her that after her nap we were going to have a party and open presents. Julia was the official present opener and gift passer-outer. And of course there is always a curious cat near by.
The girls in front of the tree with their matching pj's on.
Julia explaining to Shelby how to work one of her toys.
I love this....Julia, her grandpa and great grandma Loi playing with my little Pony. I think grandpa may have braided one of the ponies tails.....
The best for me was to be able to attend Julia and Shelby's Christmas concert. Here is Julia and her best friend Macie wondering what in the heck they are supposed to be doing...or perhaps they are a bit intimidated by the audience.
The reward, treats and juice.

Daddy sharing a moment with his littlest girl
And Shelby with one of her teachers. These two girls are pretty darned lucky to have such caring daycare providers. I am impressed and grandma's can be pretty critical when it comes to those that take care of their grand babies.
We took off for parts south that Sunday. The roads were great all the way down to southern California. We just beat yet another winter storm that was barreling down on the Nicollet area and instead drove to an area that has been hit with horrific rains. More from now sunny California later.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Black Friday

It all began at noon Thursday November 25th when I left the warmth and stability of our home to go to my friend Chrissy's and then Black Friday shopping! On my way I stopped for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch of Holiday gas station smoked turkey and cheese deli sandwich and a pumpkin spice latte...yummmy...not.
The roads were not the best since it had just dumped a boat load of rain turned to ice the day before and snow on top of that but I was determined to make the Black Friday shopping event.
I arrived at Chrissy's at 5pm to find her and Kim making their list...list I said, I thought we were going just for fun not to shop! How dumb was that, after all I have known Chrissy forever and I KNOW how she loves to shop..what was I thinking!
We took about an hour snooze and got up at 11pm leaving for Mankato at 11:30 because after all Walmart had sales at midnight! Did I say that it was colder than cold that night as well? Not at all a nice night.
Much to our surprise Walmart was relatively calm at midnight..phew. I actually picked up quite a few things...but then....Target at 4am. Now that was a madhouse where Chrissy almost got herself smacked by the husband of a women who was bitching belligerently at a Target employee. Chrissy saw fit to say outloud, so that the husband could hear her, "It's not the check out guys fault leave him alone". Oh dear here we go I thought. But nah the big burly guy just looked like he was going to deck Chrissy, smarted off a bit and then walked away thank goodness.
We shopped from midnight Friday until 7:30 that morning and after a much needed breakfast back to Chrissy's for a few hours sleep because I had to babysit the girls (Julia and Shelby) at 6 that night! It was a whirlwind but was a blast.

The before preparation-Chrissy, Kim and Kenya


The during

And the after
Kenya didn't even know that I was taking her picture
And Chrissy told me to get out!
Alrighty then the girls. Babysitting went well on very little sleep. Poor Shelby did not want to go to sleep and Julia the trooper kept herself busy all night while Grandma rocked and held Shelby. Yep, that Julia is two going on four I am sure!
She does love her little sis and always wants to help. Shelby is just starting to eat cereal and Julia wanted to help feed her.

I would love to know what was going through Shebly's mind at this moment!
Mommy and daughter pedicure time. I asked but Kel wouldn't do mine.
Oh and the addition....David got the metal ceiling up in the new living room, the rooms are painted and we had our second set of guests a few weeks ago. Jess and Kim spent a long weekend and gave a thumbs up for the addition.
While 'down south' I had my second ST scan. Doc C wanted to see if the nodule was still in my lung and if it was he talked about sending me to a pulmonologist. We knew that it was not cancer, in fact I do not have a single cancer cell in my body, but he did want to know what the heck it was. The nodule is still there but the radiologists all agreed that it is just a nodule and needs no follow up at all. AND I found out that I also have a nodule on my adrenal gland. That one is nothing as well, they are both just there but nothing to worry about.
So, it's cold up here and I am done with my Christmas shopping, bring on the holidays!