Splash and her monkey resting up for the New Years Festivities.

Pat and Ron enjoying the evening.

I got up this morning and cleaned up the trailer for one last time in 2007. I sent Colin out for groceries and that gave me a chance to run the vacuum through. When everything was cleaned up it was time to pamper myself with a nice hot shower, did my nails and got ready for the evening festivities.

We went over to the club house at around 7:00 and joined everyone there for finger foods, drinks and celebrating. Seeing how it's all retired seniors in the park we were all back in our trailers by 10:30. Poor Dick Clarke.....we watched him yet again doing his New Years Rocking Eve program from Time Square.........He wasn't doing too much Rockin! Have to give the man credit though for hanging in there. After that was over we called it a year and hit the hay!

Happy New Year to all!

The last couple of days my allergies have really been bothering me so we have kind of been laying low. We took down the inside Christmas decorations and packed them away for another year. The outside ones will come down next week.

Colin ordered prescription eye glasses over the internet and he received them yesterday. He was very pleased with them so this week I will order mine and see how that goes. His were only $40.00 and mine will come in under $100.00 complete with bendable Titanium frames, progressive bifocal lenses, anti reflective and anti scratch coating and removable sunglass clips. Why have we never done this before??

The dogs have had their New Years bath and are all clean for another week.

Colin has also ordered our Golf Clubs over the internet, so I am excited to get those and start practicing.

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. I imagine I will be saying the same thing next year.

After missing Monday due to Christmas activities in the Club House it was good to get back to aerobics again this morning. There was only 4 of us but it was a good work out and took care of some of that turkey dinner.

By the time I got back to the trailer, Colin was up and dressed and well into his second coffee. I had a shower and dressed and then we headed out to Corpus Christi to see what was left after
Christmas.

Sam's Club had the earrings I wanted so we stopped there first. They have screw on backs so it's much more difficult to lose them.

Next Colin wanted to check out Comp USA as they are going out of business and he wanted to see if there were any deals to be had. It just happens to be right next to my favorite store, Jo-Anne's Fabric so while he was hunting down deals I went in there. I could spend days in that store! It's fabric and crafting and sewing and they have soooo much stuff. I bought a couple of yards of fleece as I have a dog coat pattern I want to play around with. It was marked down to $4.99 a yard so that was a good deal. They also had their Christmas decorations on for 70% off so I picked up a few things for next year.

Before we left Corpus we stopped at Krispy Kream and had a coffee and donuts and then headed home through Port Aransas and over the Ferry. back to Fulton. It was a relaxing day after cooking all day yesterday.

Everyone digging in.....yummy!

All the food set out waiting to be eaten.

Carving up the Bird.

Another Fine Christmas Turkey!

Mexi eating some Christmas Treats......She wasn't getting the clean up part though!

Trying on the fake Diamond earrings.
That's right it's Christmas again!

Our day started off with a phone call from Cort to wish us a Merry Christmas........at 7:30! but that was okay at least he called. After that it was time to get up and make a quiche for our Christmas morning brunch with Mimosas....very good! While the Quiche was cooking we opened our gifts to each other....I got fake diamond earrings packed in money to buy the real ones.....how fun is that. Colin also gave me a really pretty necklace. I bought him a set of high ball glasses and an organizer for beside his chair. He's been thinking of buying golf clubs so when he does that will be the rest of his Christmas gift from me.

We sat on the porch and relaxed for a bit after our brunch and then it was time to swing into gear with my turkey dinner. By 6:00 the table was set the food was ready and we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Turkey dinner with Pat, Ron, Suzanne and Armin. After we cleaned up we went over to Suzanne and Armin's for a drink. All in all a pretty good day.

We also got calls from Shelly and from Colin's Mom and Dad and we called my brother and Colin's brother. We also found out the news that my niece Meghan and her husband Dayton are expecting their first baby......I am sooo excited for her.

Today was spent with last minute preparations for Christmas day.......the last bit of wrapping, putting up the dog's stockings and doing some ahead of time preparing of food. Colin of course did his usual last minute Christmas shopping.

In the evening we had a very nice candle light dinner at the club house with about 30 of the parks residents. Everybody brought something but we had all been designated certain items so there were no duplications. It was a very nice evening........although I probably ate too much.

It was a quiet day today. We got up to cool temperatures in the low 40's F. It does however seem appropriate to have on a little more clothing at Christmas time. Somehow it's hard to get into the spirit when your in shorts and hot. Colin went for his walk with Mexi and Splash and I did our own little walk.

The trailer is all cleaned up and all the food is in the fridge, decorations are in place and it's starting to feel a little like Christmas. Really missing all the kids and the rest of the family.

We decided to go out today and get all the food for our Christmas dinner, that way we will avoid the zoo and crowds the day before. We bought a fresh turkey and all the fixings. We also bought Shrimp, Oysters, Crab claws, corn and potatoes to do a seafood boil. Colin made dinner and it was yummy! We have enough shrimp left for a Salad tomorrow.

I was amazed to see how quiet the stores were today.......don't get me wrong, I was okay with that.

I started off the morning with my aerobics class.....(now 5 members) We did our workout and then I came back for a nice shower. Next we cleaned up, got some laundry out of the way and then went for a 2 mile walk. I do 2 and Colin does 4 1/2. He takes Mexi and I take Splash. When I got back I had a little nap and then went shopping for something to wear to the Christmas Party. I was hoping to find a dress but nothing was just right, so I ended up with black slacks, a red top and a cream sweater.....I think it looks nice.

Our new projection TV came in today and Colin spent the afternoon hooking it up. It has a much better picture than the old one.

Christmas is getting very close......I think we will pick up the turkey tomorrow or Sunday.

I found a brochure laying in the clubhouse, advertising all you can eat oysters on Thursday night. Sounded pretty good for only $10.99. We rounded up Suzanne, Armin, Cy and Audry and off we went to "Off the Hook". As promised we were served as many oysters as we could eat 12 dozen between 5 of us (Audrey had shrimp) They were very good and the atmosphere was much nicer than the place we used to go. Thursday nights are marked on our calendar for the rest of the time we are here.

That's right.....sit on my butt Margaret has gotten going and started my own aerobics class! I have 3 different DVD's and we get together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:30. It's actually quite fun. It's a little cramped in the Clubhouse but we manage......Although the first day I did run into a table.....and ya gotta be careful not to swing your arms too high or you hit the ceiling fan.

After we were done with that we drove into Corpus to look for walking shoes for Colin........he must have tried on 20 pairs of different kinds of running/walking/hiking shoes but non were wide enough for his feet.....Quadruple E's and they were still too narrow!

We were up by 7:30, coffee made, out to walk the dogs and then last minute checks before we pulled out. We headed up the highway to Ron Hoover's RV place as we had an appointment for 9:00 to have the work done on the fridge for the recall. They said it would take about 1 hour and 45 minutes to do the work. We unhitched the trailer gave them the keys and then continued on to MacAllen to have breakfast at the IHOP and pick up one last item from Circuit City. The timing was perfect, by the time we got back they had the trailer turned around and ready to go we just had to pick up the paper stating we had the work completed and we were out of there.

The trip to Fulton was uneventful. We stopped and bought some oranges and we were in the park and pulled into our site by Happy Hour. We have a really nice site this year over looking an open field and we have trees all around.

It was really good to see all of friends here and they seemed happy to see us too. The dogs got reacquainted with their dog friends and everyone was happy!

Our first night back in Fulton we joined Suzanne, Armin and Gaynor for Oysters at Captain Benny's .....they were very good!

I know......I should have taken a picture of the new tires too!

The top has 3 different kinds of wood.

There is also inlaid work on the front.

Colin had new truck tires on order and they came in so we had to go to MacAllen to have them installed. We did some shopping at Sam's club while we were waiting and I spent my Christmas money from Colin's mom. I found a really pretty jewelery box that will fit in the trailer.

When we got back to the trailer we finished packing up and hooked the truck on so we would be ready to leave by 8:30 in the morning.

Suzanne and Armin arrived this morning for 3 days. Armin has to get some dental work done. They visited some friends during the day and then came back to the park to have dinner at our trailer with us and Bob and Carol. We had brisket, stuffed potatoes, salad and broccoli. Carol made a lemon cake dessert with ice cream. We had a great time catching up and it was nice being able to seat everyone inside the trailer and still have room to move around.

My Mexican Wagon Wheel.


One tired little Mexi Dog!

Pile of sleepy Dogs


10 of the people on our street were going to Mexico today so we decided we better tag along and go too. We left a bit before everyone else because I wanted to get my teeth cleaned and a pedicure. When we got there before we crossed the bridge we found a little shop that sold ice cream cones for 2/$1.00 and Banana Splits 2/$2.00. We opted for the Splits and they were quite yummy.

I walked into the dentist office to see how long to get in for a teeth cleaning and they took me in in 5 minutes. I was in and out quickly and $30.00 later had nice clean teeth!

Next was the pedicure, and again I walked right in and was looked after, $10.00 later I had pretty toes!

Next stop was the pharmacy to stock up on meds. They didn't have enough of my migraine pills but since we are going back in March I will have enough to last me till then.

While I was in getting my toes done, Colin found some neat statuary in the Canada Store. We decided to buy the Wagon wheel one......only $6.95 Very Cool! Colin did have to carry it all the way back to the truck though. When we went to Poncho's Bar to meet up with the gang we had to put it safely in the corner so the rowdy Margarita drinkers wouldn't break it. Colin managed to drink $6.00 worth of Margaritas (4) They are fairly powerful......needless to say he was very talkative on the way home. We also gave Bob and Carol a ride home and Bob was also very Chatty!

December the 8th was the date when all guests at the park could put out their garage sale items on their patio. I dutifully went into the office to get our site marked onto the map for interested buyers. The day before I organized everything and priced all the items. Naturally Colin got into the act and pulled out a bunch of electronic stuff he no longer needed.......like that stuff is going to sell.

I was outside bright and early with all my things organized. I had some clothes, a toaster, purse, shoes and I also mass produced about 70 different sized Dog Bandannas......I figured just about everyone in the park has a dog......and they all want their dogs to look cute.......Right? Wrong. I sold all of Colin's stuff.....everything. And you guessed it, not one Bandanna! Grand total between Colin's stuff and mine we made about $50.00.

At least I got to talk to lots of people.

We started out the day by going to the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge to check out some of the critters. Pictures will be coming but we have to wait on Colin to get them up. We did a two mile hike around the Pintail Lakes area and saw some interesting birds, an armadillo, alot of wasps and their nests and some very large hovering dragon flies.

After that we drove into MacAllen to return a few things Colin had bought before and buy some new things......mostly Christmas stuff to send back home. We also found a great deal on Dog harnesses......the same kind we buy at Wal-Mart but instead of $8.00 they were only $1.99. As both our dogs wear harnesses I bought 6 of them, Blue, Black and Red.

All in all a pretty good day.

The dogs had a very quiet day today......I think they wore themselves out yesterday playing on the beach. I had fun doing some needlepoint today and Colin putzed around on the computer.

This evening we joined some of our friends in the Rec Hall and took part in the Italian Buffet. There was salad, Lasagna, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Chicken , Alfredo sauce and Linguine, Italian Sausage and for dessert we had some really good cake. It was all very tasty.

I started the day out by being awakened at 7:30 to the sound of the park maintenance people cutting my grass......maybe just messing up my yard. By 10:15 it was time to head to the Rec hall for aerobics class. Back to the trailer after it was done and have a quick shower and get ready for our road trip to South Padre Island to visit with Bob and Candice Meyers. We met Bob and Candice 3 years ago when they stayed at Llano and were our neighbors. Last year they didn't come South but this year they called Bob and Carol to let them know they were down again. We drove and we all went down to see them.

Splash and Mexi had a really good time running free on the beach with Griffin, their dog. After the beach we went back to their trailer for snacks and drinks and then out to dinner at Dirty Al's. We were all looking forward to some good seafood and what we got was delicious........although the Restaurant itself was a little spartan. They did have good live entertainment though. We had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again.

The Driveway At 119 Shakespeare in Barrie.

Why is it you never have a camera when you need one?? We decided to go to a local restaurant for dinner tonight. After that we went on to Wal-mart to pick up a few things. We got back out to the truck and decided that Colin needed some things from Home Depot just a little ways down the road. When we came out we saw that the back passenger side tire was flat.....very flat.....

We have never had to change a tire on the truck before so we had to get out the manual to find the jack and all the parts, then to figure out how to drop the spare tire from under the box and oh yah.....one nut has a looking device on it and you need this special little thingy that fits onto it.......thank goodness it was in the glove box! WE had three offers of help but we persevered and did it all by ourselves. We made it home so I think we passed tire changing 101. How fun was that!

By the way the picture is from our son Cort in Barrie. There are two cars in their driveway....somewhere under all that snow. It appears they are having a bit of snow back home......glad we did not have to change the tire in that!

Denise and Gordon excepting their prize. Gotta love the "Pot Holder Hat" and matching apron!

Enjoying cookies and coffee after the parade.
























Denise and Gordon with Bella and Ginger,....second place winners.

The mustang took first place.

Jerry and Carols Cart looking mighty fine.

Ginger, all decked out in her Christmas finery!

Today was the big day for the Golf Cart Parade and judging of the street decorating. The parade had 22 entrants and there were some really good ones. The ones with animals of course were a big hit! Friends of ours, Denise and Gordon took second prize......even though I thought they should have been first. Our street didn't win on the street decorating either but we all had fun doing it.

I think next year we are going to have to borrow a Golf Cart and get into the action. We have a whole year to plan.