Christmas week 2013– my, how time flies. The hustle and
bustle of this holiday season was felt even here in this laid back RV park. The
week's festivities included a Christmas Eve get-together with snacks, a gift
exchange, and a good old-fashioned Christmas Carol sing, and a very successful
Christmas dinner.
Weather was rather chilly for the Christmas celebrations:
temps started out in the low 40s Monday and Tuesday, warming to the mid-50s by
mid-afternoon. However, the sun was shining, putting everyone in the spirit of
the holiday. Karen (from Wisconsin) and I rearranged tables Tuesday morning during the "stitch and b..." session to
accommodate the 90 or so people we were expecting for dinner on Christmas Day,
seating 8 to a table.
The Christmas Eve get-together started at 7 p.m., with most
folks arriving around 6:30. (Seldom is anyone late for meals and parties around here!)
Potluck snacks included cheese and meat platters, shrimp cocktail, crackers,
chicken wings, a relish tray, and of course, my baked brie with caramelized
onions and candied walnuts (recipe available if desired…). I also made a batch
of eggnog that was a big hit. (It's
quite rich, but oh, so good…maybe the Southern Comfort had something to do with
it….hmm…). This was followed by a white elephant (of sorts) gift exchange—with
about 60 people attending, this took a while! Then, with Larry and Hap on
guitars and me at the piano, we had a good old fashioned Carol sing. Even though the piano was terribly out of
tune, no one seemed to notice or mind. A good time was had by everyone!
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| Gift table for the gift exchange |
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| Snack table |
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| Karen and Steve from Wisconsin |
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| Front: Pam and Gary from Oregon, RJ and me, Bob and Sharon from Missouri |
Christmas morning, friends Robin (from Ohio) and Sharon (from Missouri) sliced the 8 spiral-cut hams in preparation for Christmas dinner (that's a lot of ham, and boy, was it good!), while I cleaned up the tables from the night before, and did a bit of rearranging. The hams were donated by the Parish family (thank you!) and the remainder of the meal was provided by campers in the park. There was everything from shoe peg corn salad and baked beans to asparagus salad, gelatin salads, green salad, scalloped corn, green bean casseroles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and rolls. I'm sure I left out something… I made home-made mustard for our table, and that, too, was a big hit. Oh, then there were the desserts…YUM! Everything was on the dessert table from cakes and pies, to cookies and fresh fruit. (I did chocolate decadence with Kahlua…Mmmmm, good!) There was plenty of food for everyone, and lots of ham left over. (I see scalloped potatoes and ham in our Wednesday night dinner future! Or, maybe bean and ham soup, or maybe…) Dinner was scheduled for 2 p.m., and by 3:30 p.m. everyone had had their fill, and was gone. We made short order of putting the clubhouse back to rights, and by 4 p.m. we were done.
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| Getting ready for Christmas dinner |
Then—we were ready to play Pegs and Jokers! Pam and Gary,
Bob and Sharon, and RJ and I played a couple of games before heading home to
recuperate from all the festivities. The stats as of that day: women 3 vs. men 1.
We spent the remainder of the week relaxing for the most
part, with errands thrown in for good measure, and RJ working on Bay View
projects in the office and at home. I started yet another knitting project. We
did a bit of walking along Fulton Beach Road, never tiring of seeing egrets,
blue herons, pelicans, and everything or anything else. It’s so beautiful…
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| In Texas, Santa doesn't use reindeer--he uses Longhorns! |
One thing we've been anxiously waiting for is the arrival of
Bob's and Sharon's new 5th wheel. They decided to trade in their
4-month old pull-behind and Toyota pickup for a new Palomino-brand 5th
wheel and Chevy dually 1-ton. The issue was how to transfer "stuff" from one to
the other, and handle their 2 dogs Shane (yellow lab) and Ferbie (toy poodle)
in the meanwhile. It's supposed to be here in the park today…it's now raining
and 44 degrees…we'll see how this goes…
Pastor Jones' messages on Sunday mornings are always so
insightful and meaningful, always with a bit of humor thrown in. He continued
his messages from the book of John in the New Testament; today's was on John
1:1-18—"Who is Jesus," and "Why did Jesus come?" The main theme is that Jesus
is "the heart" of the gospel. The pastor also reminded us that what we believe is
defined by the life we live and the choices we make. Here's the link to his
message; we encourage you to have a listen. http://www.sermon.net/fbcrockport
Sunday afternoon we decided to attend the ice cream social
in the clubhouse, where we met with Bob and Sharon, Pam and Gary, and Karen and
Steve. Although Karen and Steve decided to head home to watch Green Bay Packers football,
the rest of us spent a couple of hours playing Pegs and Jokers. I say: "Women
Rule!" After these 3 games, it's now 5:2 in favor of the women. (Shirl, you'd
be so proud of us! Marvin…probably not so much…)
We hope you had a blessed Christmas filled with wonderful
memories. We look forward to what 2014 brings, and wish for you a year of
health and happiness.
Blessings from these Winter Texans,
RJ and Gail
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