Saturday

A very early start, we were up at 6:15 AM and down to the rec centre to help out on the breakfast crew.  It was mainly because Patti & Gary have lost some of their crew while the others are not here yet.  Marg did her usual job, cooking the scrambled eggs and she does that so well.  Me on the other hand, I worked as the gopher.  I helped get the place set up, the coffee out and the dishes done up.  Then when the sausage & gravy ran low, opened a new can and got it heated up on the stove.  The hot water system was not working this morning so I had to keep heating water on the stove in the 3 gallon pots.  It ended up being a large crew and we only fed 45 or so which made the job very manageable.
  We were cleaned up and out by 9:30 so we went to a few park sales.  Marg had clipped the ads from the paper and was looking forward to it as a break.  We went to Happy Days where they had lots of vendors and got a few things.  Marg got a Santa figure, some stop drip pans and I got a nice 30 amp extension cord for the motor home at a good price.  Then on to Superstition rv park [a much larger park] where it was getting close to 12 when they shut down, so vendors were getting very negotiable.  Marg got a few more things and I picked up a couple of little things.  By then it was time to call it a day.  I had a corded drill from last year, but needed a chuck key.  I found one but it came with a drill that works for a buck.
  When we got back I had to wrap the gifts we bought for the Christmas gift exchange.  Marg did some laundry, but got a little carried away doing 3 loads.  She has been air drying to see how that works out, but that meant she was tight on hanging space, so a bit of a challenge.  Other than that we chilled at in the sun for a few hours.  Marg did a bit of visiting as she delivered two sympathy cards both to ladies who lost their sisters this week.  There was also a new arrival in the park, they are annuals, but just got in, so Marg convinced her to attend the party.
  Happy hour was brief and that gals talked mainly about the party and the margarita's and how much fun they had.  The guys talked about golf and stuff like that.  It was a brief one as we had to get supper before the party.  We ate in tonight, a shrimp sort of stir fry and rice.
  Then it was off to the rec centre for the party. I had agreed to be the photographer for the event so I could post pictures on the tenants association FB site.  The hits on the site have jumped dramatically since we got here.  Everyone brings a gift wrapped in newspaper so it can't be identified and then they passed around a pair of dice.  As soon as you roll doubles you go pick a gift from the pile.  There were about 80 people, so it was busy.  Then they allowed 15 minutes of exchanges.  The same process, if you rolled a double then you could take someone's gift in exchange for yours.  This was the mass confusion part of the process.  There was lots of food [snacks] and punch, then some caroling.  We also had a hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas with 12 different groups sing their verse, each trying to be funnier than the rest.  Marg was in the 12 drummers drumming group.  We also had a 50/50 raffle with the proceeds going to a veteran [of Iraq I think] and his young family.  It was won by Paul [he is one of our happy hour group] and he told them to keep the prize and give it to the veteran for Christmas.  Paul and Doreen are full time rv'ers from Maine and are pretty decent people, obviously, when seeing what he did tonight.
  Then it was a scramble to get things organized and on the FB site when we got home.  Things should slow down for us now as our next commitment is the Christmas dinner.  It's funny, there are a couple of people trying to start a new breakfast crew as well as fill other crews.  It will be a challenge to stay off.