What were we thinking??

As we woke up this morning to -17 celcius or -31 with the wind chill, we wondered why we thought staying here for a month would not be too hard on us!! Brrrrr !! Jane has decided to hibernate until it warms up which may only be when we return to Texas.

We have enjoyed sharing Christmas with our family and friends. On Christmas day we hosted dinner for twelve and I think Jane had cooked a dinner for forty!! Good thing I love turkey and ham left-overs.. LOL Our great niece and nephew were the hit of the party.

During our time in Ottawa, Jane got the cookie baking monster out of her system, I got to a Senator's hockey game with Amy,

We also handled an emergency garage door repair, and spent some time with Jenn.

On Tuesday, Paul's sister Terry and her husband drove up from Montreal to have a belated Christmas lunch with us and Jenn.

Jenn also had some of her Jersey friends (who were visiting relatives in Montreal) drop by for lunch. It was fun to meet some of her friends here at home.

We are planning a small dinner with our friends on New Year's eve - so we won't be too wild, since Jenn flies home on New Year's Day.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year - and wishing we were already back in Texas... :-)

Christmas Wishes

On December 8, we flew home from Texas. Our plan is to celebrate the Christmas season with family and friends in Ottawa. Friday morning Paul was out bright and early buying new Christmas lights and then installing them on the front of the house.

Our next task was to decorate the tree so that by Saturday evening the neighbours could tell that we had returned home and would soon be celebrating Christmas.

After a month away enjoying the “low calorie Mexican food”, both Paul and I headed to our respective gyms to work out. The aquafit classes at the OAC are much more strenuous than those at Fun ‘N Sun so Jane certainly enjoyed using the steam room and hot tub to relax her tired muscles after class!!

Yesterday the house looked even more like Christmas as our friend Janet and Jane spent the day baking cookies and squares. The challenge now is to make sure they last until Christmas so that we can serve them to the family.

We want to wish all of you the joy and peace of this Christmas season and we hope our paths will cross early in 2012.

Yikes - December already!!

Wednesday evening we went over to the Oak Hill event center (just across from our park) for their live music and dancing. This week’s group played a lot of slow dances, so we spent quite a bit of time on the dance floor. During the draws, Jane won herself a cowgirl hat.

After the dance we ended up at C&C Wings with our friends Dave & Myrna – wings were good, but as our Ottawa friend Guy would say “pigeon wings not buffalo wings”.

Thursday was a chance to do some things around our rv home. Paul dug out the weeds and grass from our small garden area and did some gardening. Our Kralik rv sign now has a prominent new home.

The garden was full of white lava rocks, so the only solution was to add more.
Thursday night saw the return of Texas two-step dance classes for this camping season. It was fun to get back and find out all the things we had forgotten – how could this be, there are only two steps??? LOL

Friday was Wayne’s 68th birthday, so eight of us went to the Texas Roadhouse to celebrate the occasion. Instead of making Wayne wear a hat, here they made him ride a saddle while everyone sang.

We all had a fun time. Even after 2 margaritas, Wayne wouldn’t come to the weekly Fun N Sun Western dance, but Dave & Myrna joined us and we met Blair & Sharon and other friends there.

Saturday started off at 8am with a garage sale in our rec hall. We did manage to accumulate several small items. Once that was over we headed into Harlingen for their Jackson street market day – an outdoor six block long flea market. Saturday evening we headed over to Port Isabel for the annual Christmas lighted boat parade.

Although the parade was small, the entrants really did a nice job decorating. After the parade, Dave & Myrna, Mitch & Connie, Jane & I went over to Pelican Station for an excellent seafood dinner.

Sunday after church and breakfast at one of the local Mexican restaurants, we headed to the malls for some last minute Christmas shopping - since we are starting to think about heading home this Thursday. The evening ended with the weekly ice cream social and live entertainment at the rec hall. The show was Aloha in Texas - the Hawaiian entertainers were fabulous and the audience participants did a great job (Myrna & Jane may even sign up for hula lessons after their stage debut).

Tuesday evening we went to the Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum for their "Christmas at the Museum" open house. The theme was Toys of yesteryear and magical Christmas Trees which could be viewed while enjoying hors d'oeuvres, desserts, wine and champagne. We went with nine of our friends and it was an enjoyable way to celebrate the lead up to this holiday season.

Today is our last full day in Texas. Tomorrow morning we fly home to Ottawa for the Christmas season - so today will be spent getting the RV ready to sit here in the warm sun while we go north to enjoy (?) the cold north!! Although we are looking forward to seeing family and friends - the Texas sun will be drawing us back.

Can't wait to be back here in January.

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Thanksgiving day, Jane finally got up enough courage to try out her new bike. It did not take long for her to get used to the three wheeler – and we enjoyed a nice ride all around the park. The bike is a real hit – courtesy of our neighbor John Luxton and his bike supply service. John has supplied Paul with a bike for the last three years.

We got together with friends (mostly Canadian) for Thanksgiving dinner. Myrna & Dave BBQ’ed the turkey and the rest of us provided all the accompaniments – starting with Happy Hour in the warm afternoon sun. The food was fantastic and we ended the meal with pudding and jello shooters around the portable campfire.

At ten p.m., John volunteered to drive the women over to Walmart for the Black Friday shopping extravaganza. The trip turned out to be a real bust as the store was overcrowded and they couldn`t find any of the advertised specials. The shoppers returned home empty-handed – but the diehards set out early Friday morning and Myrna returned with not one but two sewing machines!!!

Around 11 a.m., we made what we hoped would be a quick trip to Kohl`s but waited in line for 45 minutes to pay for our one purchase.

Friday afternoon (Nov 25th) we went over to the Valley Racetrack with our friends Myrna and Dave, Mitch and Connie for an afternoon of greyhound dog racing. We bet based on the names of the dogs and came out $1.40 poorer. Not bad for an afternoon of fun. After supper, we went to the Texas Country Dance and visited with Blair and Sharon who had arrived from Canada late the week before.

Saturday morning we were up early to take a historic walking tour of downtown Harlingen. From Mike, the owner of the Java Café, we learned about the frontier days, mid-century boom times and modern Harlingen. We enjoyed seeing the murals painted on the outside of buildings as well as in the Capital One Bank building.

The most notable mural is a tribute to Bill Haley (and the Comets) who moved to Harlingen in 1976 and died there in February 1981. A reporter from the Valley Morning Star joined the tour and not only quoted Marg in his article but included a photo of her. After two hours of walking, we appreciated a nice lunch at the Java Café.
For more info on our walk click on :
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/articles

After supper, Dave and Myrna; John and Marg joined us for a free outdoor music festival commemorating the Centennial of the city of San Benito. The weather didn`t exactly cooperate – yes we got rained on and almost blown away by the Texas winds but the music was good and we had fun.

Tuesday night (Nov 29) we went over to the Valley Baptist Medical complex for their annual “Lights for Life” Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Two local school choirs sang Christmas carols, Santa made an arrival in a red convertible – in all a nice ceremony but still somewhat strange as we were dressed in our shorts and sandals.