Having arrived at our daughter's home three days before Christmas, we had some time to help her with the holiday preparations and hang out with our grandsons. The boys are into chess just now and they played together, with Craig, and with their mother. I don't play!
Over the weekend I took several walks along the cliffs that are two blocks from their home. I had a great walking partner, Sandy, their Golden Retriever. My daughter has a sore foot and was unable to come along.
My daughter and I went grocery shopping together, and I prepared Eggplant stacks for the Christmas Eve meal. It was also fun to work side-by-side with her to make a wonderful beef Wellington dinner on Christmas Day. My son-in-law made a delicious Pavlova for dessert and the men did the cleanup and the dishes!
Christmas morning was dedicated to gift giving and present opening. The boys were happy with all of their gifts and did not seem to be disappointed with anything.
Our younger grandson loved his camo-Snuggie, and wore it all morning. He had also made or collected small gifts for his stuffed animals and unwrapped them for each of the critters.
On Christmas we Skyped with our son in Seattle and with our son-in-law's parents in New Zealand. Far flung family!
My daughter set up a very complex jigsaw puzzle that we all worked on. Eventually everyone but Craig drifted away.
Games with complex rules seemed par for the day. Our older grandson explains the rules to his mother! (Notice he has the periodic table of Minecraft on his tee shirt!)
The days went by way too fast. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be leaving for Desert Hot Springs in the Alfa.
Footnote:
8 days until we hit the road for our Christmas trip!
It is going to be a very open ended adventure. I have two reservations, but there are a lot of days that I have no idea as to where we will be.
Our first stop will be in the LA area where we will spend a day at M&M, a Freightliner service place where we will be getting new Koni shocks put on the Alfa. We decided that the shocks will be our mutual Christmas presents. I'm giving Craig the front ones, and he's giving me the backs.
When we were at an FMCA rally last year Craig heard a presentation in which it was said that one of the best improvements you can make to a motorhome is to get new shocks installed. Our ride is pretty good, but we have had a few screws loosen and there are some rattles that make a bit of noise. We will see if there really is an improvement! Craig says he's prepared to be disappointed...
We will spend Christmas with our daughter and her family.
The neighbors were OK with our parking on her street for a few days last year, and I hope it will be OK again this year. At least we don't have last year's electrical problem that made us run the generator longer than we would like. It turned out we had a loose wire!
We will probably sleep in the Alfa, but spend the rest of the time in the house.
We have a reservation for several days at Death Valley starting on December 30. It's about 350 miles from San Diego to Death Valley. I'm looking at a couple of different routes, and we may take a few days getting there. We will see some different places if we take a longer, less direct route. I think it will depend on the weather forecasts.
After Death Valley, we have three nights at a Passport America park in Las Vegas. I've never been there. I want to see the strip and the casinos. I'm not a gambler, but the bright lights call to me.
Then our plans are open. We might spend a week or so exploring the Lake Havasu area. I've found a Passport America park we could go to in Lake Havasu City. I called and was told we shouldn't make a reservation if we want to use our Passport America, but they generally have plenty of open spots.
Again, it will depend on the weather.
I am torn. I know we should go right home and get back to work on the house if we want it on the market by summer, but on the other hand, once out of the driveway I want to keep going!
