Thursday - Dec 18th

One week until Christmas
  We got up in time for coffee & donuts.  We are one of very few that take their own coffee, mainly because we prefer the way Marg makes it.  It was well attended this morning and the donuts were free.  Well when I say free, that means we in a monetary sense.  We had to listen to a travel agent tell us in 10 minutes or less, about the great opportunities she has for us.  There was lots of the usual stuff, however one unique thing was Marg was among the group of ladies who received a big thank you for organizing the Christmas party.  We really went to attend a meeting of the turkey cookers of Carefree Manor.  This is one of the projects Marg volunteered us for.  We are cooking 5 turkeys along with gravy & stuffing for the Christmas dinner.  We also had to plan our dinner as we are sitting at the workers table this year.  Marg volunteered to bring her yams with the marshmallow topping and the crepe dish she makes every year.  I volunteered to bring cranberries as it appears some of our group are ambivalent on them.  To me cranberries make the turkey & are an important part of my Christmas dinner.
  Then it was out for a road trip to pick up some of the stuff we need to meet our commitments.  The first stop was Total Wine, where I got a couple of bottles of scotch.  Marg out-shopped me there again with the usual collection of stuff for chick drinks.  She has been getting lots of inquiries about her next patio party, so it looks to be in the planning stage.  Just tell me when and where I need to be.
  We also bought a electric griddle, something she uses a great deal at home.  She plans on offering fried eggs in addition to scrambled on Saturday AM.  That's right it is our turn to make breakfast.  She also got flower to make the crepes, yams, marshmallows, all that stuff so we are ready to rock & roll.  Stopped at American furniture on the way back to check on the status of our table, but are none the wiser on that score.  One of us did manage to find a duvet set that really caught her eye, so now we can take our other brand new one for the Az room [I guess], in case anyone comes to see us.  Also stopped at Costco on the way back and bought some other stuff for the happy hour feast on Saturday.  We limit food to one happy hour a week, but no limits on liquid refreshments.   No food on Friday this week because of the Christmas parade in the park [mainly golf carts] on Friday to be followed by tube steak and hot chocolate .  Oh yeh, we are decorating the Rhino and entering.  The guys also talked about another trip to the desert, so looking forward to that.  I have several people expressing interest in riding with me, but it will depend on whether Kenny is here as he has first right of refusal.
  Missed the pool tournament today with all this other activity.  Got to start planning better so that I can get into that as well. 
  Had some bad news at happy hour, it seems the key member of our breakfast team has had a medical emergency, so everyone was pretty subdued and concerned.  We will be scrambling [no pun intended] to take up the slack for him and his wife and our best wishes are with them - God Bless them.
  Supper was eat out at Filberto's tonight and that is Mexican - big time.  The closest thing they have to western food is the raw onions, but it's good.  It's a regular stop for us a couple of times during the winter - well truthfully it's one of the coupons in the Coyote coupon book.  Yes Marg bought that again, so we no doubt be will be visiting some unique places - like the road kill café, LOL.  After eating we stopped at Walmart to exchange the new griddle as it was broken, then over to the dollar store [where everything in the store really costs a dollar] to get decorations for the Rhino.
  Oh yes, it was a nice day in the valley of the sun and we seem to be in a warming trend through the next few days.  They did get snow up north around Flagstaff & over at Show Low.  It's part of that pineapple express weather and one of the reasons we have been getting pretty cool at night.  Still not as chilly as home as we have not yet been down to freezing.