New Years Eve

Today is cloudy, could not see the mountains at all until late afternoon, we did not get the predicted snow but it sure did cool down, high was 39.9F (4C) and low 23.5F (-5C), which was warmer than predicted and it will start warming up tomorrow climbing back into the normal temps which are 60F to 69F (15 to 20C) next week.

We went out for dinner with a group of friends from the park to Bonanza Pizza House just outside Tombstone, AZ. A neat little restaurant that allows their patrons to bring their own liquor as they do not have a liquor license not a practice that would be allowed in Alberta as far as we know. The restaurant was aptly named, quoted off the menu “Bonanza in the 1800’s meant a rich vein of ore, whether that was gold, silver or copper. At Bonanza Pizza House you can expect that same feeling of discovering the food is rich in flavour and the portions are enough to feed any hungry miner.” The restaurant lived up to its name; the food is hand made from scratch, huge portions and very tasty. All the pizza dishes are created with their unique “Beer crust”, it is very tasty without tasting doughy, we all very much enjoyed the food, the friendly service and of course there is nothing better than enjoying fine food with good friends.

Deciding what to eat, the menu is not large but it all looks good!








The Hughes clan, Jane and Dennis (our friends from Ontario) facing the camera and Mark and Georgane Hughes, they are not related in any way and not from Canada, it just happened that Mark and Georgane are neighbors of Jane and Dennis at the park. Sorry Georgane if I have spelled your name incorrectly.






Our waitress and in the background, Gary and Carol from North Dakata and yours truly. You can get an idea as to the size of the restaurant, there are 4 tables that will seat six and 1 table that seats two.








Visiting while waiting for our food.













Jen and Mike from Ontario, Mike and Lenore from Wisconsin.












Indulging, Woody and I both ordered Pizza Calzone, pizza ingredients wrapped in the beer crust and deep fried, not greasy at all and just enough dough to hold it all together, something different we have never seen on a menu and it was very good.











The gentleman in the hat is the cook whom we asked to meet and thank personally.


Just after returning home we received a phone call from friends we had met here the first year asking where we were, they were at the clubhouse New Years Eve gathering and wondered why we were not there, this was a total surprise as they had arrived late the night before and we had no idea they were at the park. We hurried down to the clubhouse where we were warmly greeted with hugs by Mark, Annette and their son Bret, wow it was so great to see them again as the last time we saw them was in Las Cruces, NM (where they reside) on our trip home in spring of 09. What a wonderful end to 2010!

Two more sleeps until 2011

The day started out sunny but soon turned to cloud and rain around 9:00 am with temps dropping during the day which was predicted, we even had a snow shower this afternoon, big flakes and did not last long, winds pretty much same as yesterday.

Besides doing the normal daily chores, we decided it was a day to stay indoors, I spent most of the day learning to use some of the features offered on Pinnacle Movie Studio Plus that I have not used with video clips, some are pretty cool and others allow creating a more interesting video and I must say I have only scratched the surface of features that are available on the version I have.

Woody was not happy with the leather project he was working on yesterday (a gun sling) so after giving some thought to how he could create the pattern along with the braiding he wants to incorporate on the gun sling he spent some time working on other projects and started a new gun sling this afternoon. As I type this he just wrapped it up and put it in the fridge (to keep the leather moist) and told me he is not satisfied with this one either, not good enough to sell, I feel his disappointment and I feel bad for him, I know what that feels like, work so hard on a project and then it just doesn’t work out the way you think it should be. On the positive side he received an order for a knife and sheath from his website, the first order generated from the website, now that is exciting! He now has 3 knives and sheaths to make, should keep him busy for a few weeks eh! The day passed very quickly, the second last day of the year, cannot hardly believe another year has passed! Have a safe and happy New Years Eve day tomorrow!

Cooler today

We are losing our nice warm weather for a few days, it started out sunny today but clouded up and the wind is blowing, gusting to 50 MPH (80 KPH) and is now raining, high today was 59F (15C). Snow is predicted for tomorrow and it will stay cool until after New Year’s in fact New Years Eve the low is supposed to be 18F (-7C) and that is cold for this area, the record low for tonight in this area is 19F in 1988 maybe there will a new record. No frost for tonight but we prepared just in case filling our water tank and unhooking the water hose, you never know as we are at 4000 ft here. Should start warming up again Tuesday so this cold snap will be short lived and it is not a big deal except for the higher elevations, they are expecting about 7 inches of snow accumulation. We had snow here last year three times and it melted by 1l:00 am, the first on December 23^rd so we expect a little snow from now until maybe mid January or early February.

I updated Woody’s website today did some cleaning and did not do much else. Woody worked on a leather project plus did some needed shopping and not much else; yeah you could say we are being lazy!

Here are a couple of items he completed before Christmas, the belt buckle and a picture, both created for gift s. H e neglected to take pictures of the other items he completed and sold. BAD BOY! LOL

The Maple Leaf is hand cut and is mounted on a hand stamped leather piece surrounded by a mat and framed in a Shadow Box frame. The picture does not due this creation justice, it really is beautiful.

Hope you had a great day!

A Challenge with Blogger

Oh man I am frustrated with the Google blogger that I use to create this blog. I have spent days trying to post our Christmas Eve blog post. As you can see the post is still not correct, the fonts are two different sizes. After trying to fix the post I deleted the whole post, pictures and all, recreated the post and still the font blogger insists on using for the beginning of the post is too large. I changed the font size several times, saved the post and then published it and no difference, so I am giving up and leaving it just the way you see it and basically I am doing this post to see what font size will appear when I publish this post. Oh yeah, I tried the new editor that Google offers and the old editor, no difference except for the picture uploading. Blah!!!!

Okay this post published, no issues, now I will add a picture just for fun to see what happens!

No problem, looks okay, hmmmmm. I don't know what is going on with the Christmas Eve post. Maybe I will get brave and try publishing the Christmas Day post.

Well I just deleted the Christmas Day post, same problem cannot get the format to work properly, the first sentence I typed was underlined, there is no option for underlining, so I tried to remove all formatting, did not work. I uploaded the pictures first and then tried to write the post, not happening! Not sure what I will try next. Hope you have had a great day!

Christmas Day

As mentioned in our Dec 24^th post, we attended the Christmas Day Pot Luck and Gift Exchange today as always it was fun and the food was fantastic. We spent time visiting before dinner was served, after dinner participated in Carol singing and last but surely not least the gift exchange.



The best dressed man at the dinner!







































Right is Pooch and wife Donna, Pooch led the Christmas Carolling after dinner.

















Right is Wayne and Robin, Wayne is the gentlemen who introduced Woody to leather craft.























Right - Martha (Santa's Elf) and Anne (Mrs. Santa) directed the gift exchange.










Lenore and Mike enjoying the gift exchange shenanigans.














Right, Roger and Judy, new friends this year, we were so happy to see them as they have down and out with the flu for weeks.







Left Jane opening her gift, a very good adult beverage, which she later lost when someone stole it but at the end of the exchange she ended up with it.









The gift I opened was a cookie can filled with various sizes of batteries, what a clever gift, I lost it before Woody could get a picture!












Woody opened this awesome screw driver set which no one stole, we were surprised but happy to take it home!










Right, Bonnie has a gel seat cover for a bike, which has circulated for 2 years now. She traded it off and eventually the seat ended up with Jen who really wanted it, so guess it won't reappear next year!


After the gift exchange came the "Awards", the park has a contest for decorated sites and some winter residents do a fantastic job decorating their sites. We do put up a few outdoor lights, some bows and garland and received along with other folks in the park a "Participation Award" which we thought was awesome.

Below park Managers are recognizing and thanking the Camp Workers, Volunteers and our Activity Directors, these folks deserve thanks for sure, they all do an awesome job!



























Donna surprised us and other friends of she and Pooch with wine glasses that she hand painted with a hand made dish cloth tucked inside, what an awesome gift. Donna and Pooch's daughter (Shannon) and family came down to the park from Illinois this year to spend Christmas here and became part of our swim group, Shanon gave every one in the swim group a hand made little Christmas towel, so very thoughtful, thank you both!




Last I thought I would add a couple of pics of our humble Christmas Tree. We so enjoyed our Christmas Day with friends at our Winter home!
Happy New Year all!

Christmas Eve

During the day we prepared our contribution to the Christmas Pot Luck at the clubhouse tomorrow. The park provides coffee, water, juice, a ham, potatoes and other trimmings, everyone who attends brings their favourite dish and whatever they wish to drink (other than the above mentioned beverages) nothing better and we usually overeat which is a tradition at Christmas eh! After dinner there will be carol singing and a gift exchange, everyone who wishes to participate in the gift exchange brings a wrapped gift for the exchange, then we pick a card from the deck of cards, the activity director at the park then picks a card from another deck and when you card is called you can pick a gift from under the tree or steal someone else’s gift. The gifts can only change hands twice as otherwise the gift exchange could go on all night. The whole evening is a lot of fun, especially the gift exchange, there are always the favourite gifts and the comedy type gifts, and we love it!

In the evening we attended our friend’s (Jane and Dennis from Ontario) Christmas Eve Buffet along with other friends Mike and Lenore from Wisconsin and Mike and Jen from Ontario. The buffet and company were awesome, we had a wonderful evening and we could not have wished for a better Christmas Eve. Jane baked a Tourtiere Meat Pie which is a tradition for their family and is a traditional Quebec dish which many Ontario residents have adopted.

The girls, Lenore, Jane, Patsy and Jen!

The buffet was complete with a delicious French bread, veggies and of course dessert. Before the buffet we were treated to snacks and home baked Christmas cookies along with some adult beverages.

Dennis and Mike

Mike and Mike, Mike on the left is Jen's husband and Mike on the right is Lenore's husband, just so you don't think I made a mistake eh!

Thank you Jane and Dennis for inviting us and hosting a wonderful evening.

Enjoying our winter

As I type this, my beloved husband is working on a leather project (I am hearing some frustration on his part, muttering and such) but I know he will figure out a way to solve the issues he is encountering, he always does. He has completed and sold a few belt buckles and a cell phone case since we arrived, he is now working on creating a matching set consisting of a belt buckle, belt, knife, knife sheath and gun sling.

I have been keeping busy, creating cards, doing water exercise with some ladies at the park, decorating our little home for Christmas, cleaning out our files, keeping up our daily expense record (blah) and other mundane chores LOL. We both are enjoying our winter of relaxation, visiting, attending park functions and just doing whatever we feel like when the mood hits us. One thing I have not done at all is work on our blog, just cannot seem to get my mind into, not sure why, I know I will be kicking myself later if I don’t get myself in gear. I have checked the blog often for bits and pieces of information, dates etc., from our previous trips. Our idea when I began the blog was to keep our family and friends updated on our activities and for us to enjoy when we are unable to continue living this lifestyle and settle down in a Seniors Apartment.

The puppies are healthy and mischievous at times, the other day while we were shopping they got into the candy dish that was on the table, there were several candy wrappers on the floor and small bits of candy stuck in their face fur, so last night when we went to the Landmark Café, we placed the candy dish on the counter, when we returned they had snagged the beautiful hand embroidered, with tatted edging (hand done by my Great Grandmother) off the table and chewed up the tatting, totally wrecking it, this is the worst thing they have ever done! We had pushed the chairs under the table and thought this would keep them from snagging anything on the table, WRONG! We will tip the chairs over the table after this as we don’t want them snagging our little Christmas tree that sits on the table, decorated with new and some very old decorations that were my Dad’s. Oh yeah and then to add insult to injury they upchucked the lace tatting, the little devils! They do have toys to play with but guess that was too boring!

Muffin above and Cookie below,
can't you just see how sorry they are! LOL