The Holidays

The holidays can be extremely exhausting. There’s tons of shopping, wrapping, mailing and just plain running around to do This holiday has not been an exception. We've been very busy. Heck, we're always busy even when there isn't a holiday.

The rains that deluged California rolled through the Phoenix area. Thank goodness it was just a small piece of what was received west of us. In an RV the sound of the rain hitting the roof is greatly enhanced. It certainly can make for a very peaceful night’s sleep. It’s always nice when the rain can come, leave a little moisture and then move on during the night. Rain isn’t that common in Arizona but we usually see our share of it when we’re there in the winter. However, rain is common in the Pacific Northwest and that's where I went for Christmas.

One of our stops was in Vancouver, Washington at the Dairy Queen on Main Street. Since it was located between my junior and senior high schools, I spent many lunch hours devouring their jr. burgers. Plus, this was the place to be on Friday nights if you were "cruizing the gut". I still love the junior cheese burgers!

Thursday started very, very early. I had a flight to catch from Phoenix to Portland at 7:00 in the morning. You can imagine what time we had to get up and get going, not only to arrive at the airport on time but to allow for check-in and screening. The flight was easy, perfect and uneventful. My grandson, Justin, was appointed my airport chauffer. He was to pick me up and deliver me to his home in Kalama, about 35 miles north. However, we got sidetracked just a tad and didn’t show up there until almost 10 hours later. After all there was visiting that needed to be done, eating, plus shopping, fixing a flat tire and the list went on. That list also included a stop at Winco for special dog treats for Duchess.

The next day we stopped at another place on my list. It was Elmer’s for their scrumptious Crab BLT Salad.

When bedtime arrived I was more than ready. It had been a long day and I had no doubt the next one (Christmas Eve) would be another long very long one. Boy, was I right. It started early since Sabrina wanted to hit the mall when it opened at 8:00 AM! It wasn’t just one mall we visited. I’m sure we actually visited all of them in the area from Kelso to Vancouver, a span of over 40 miles. And, Janice calls me the “energizer bunny”! She just hasn’t met Sabrina yet. We raced through the malls, wrapped presents and then went to Christmas Eve service. Afterwards, it was pizza and the movie “Nanny McPhee Returns”. Again, I was more than ready when it was finally time to go to sleep.

Check out this cup – It’s a chalkboard cup! They knew we used chalk for our plans so when they saw this cup, it was already MINE! How cute is that?

Today is Christmas Day. I love it when presents are opened slowly and time is taken to enjoy what everyone receives. It was a nice slow morning of gift unwrapping and phone calls to family. The big Christmas meal is in the making and the best part is I’m not cooking it. It’s pay-back time. My daughter cooked Thanksgiving dinner and my daughter-in-law is cooking Christmas dinner. I have no doubt that by evening I’ll feel that this was a very relaxing day. Aren’t holidays with family wonderful?

Tomorrow it’s back to the airport. I hope it goes just as smoothly as the first one did.

Wishing you all a joyous Christmas.