Family Visit - part 2 -- around and about

During our family's visit...

... we walked around the community looking at Christmas decorations -- Kim, Joan, and Pamela at the Christmas trees located at the Community Center.

Grands in the light tunnel near the entrance of the community

Daughters in the light tunnel

Cocoa and cookies at the dog park -- along with Christmas carols and tree lighting

Supper at Organ Stop Pizza...

Pretty Christmas lighting for the organ and parts of the organ  at Organ Stop Pizza

We enjoyed sharing our community and sights in our town with family.

Family Visit - part 1 -- the build

Carl's three daughters and three of his granddaughters visited this past weekend and stayed in the "Williams' Casa".

One of the things Carl had as an activity was to get "help" on putting our new patio heater together. Daughter Pamela read the directions and granddaughters McKenna and Lianna helped "Auntie" and "Papa" to put it together:

Getting started on the base -- we didn't realize until Pamela started reading the directions that we needed 25 pounds of sand to go into the base to begin with -- the work crew continued undeterred with construction while I drove over to Lowe's to acquire sand.

Papa and grands working on assembly

Carl and Pamela assembling the mechanism that allows us to adjust lean of the top in order to focus the heat

Pamela and the grands putting the top together

Finished product available to provide heat on the patio

We've already used it multiple times and we know that each time we use it, we'll remember that family helped us put it together!

Benefits of Getting Older

In case you only consider the negatives of getting older...

Advantages of Getting Old Jokes

1. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.
2. No one expects you to run into a burning building.
3. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
4. People call at 9 p.m. and ask, “Did I wake you?”
5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
6. There’s nothing left to learn the hard way.
7. Things you buy now won’t wear out.
8. You buy a compass for the dash of your car.
9. You can eat dinner at 4:00.
10. Your arms are almost too short to read the newspaper.
11. You can’t remember the last time you laid on the floor to watch television.
12. You can live without sex, but not without your glasses.
13. Your back goes out more than you do.
14. You consider coffee one of the most important things in life.
15. You constantly talk about the price of gasoline.
16. Your ears are hairier than your head.
17. You enjoy hearing about other people’s operations.
18. You get into a heated argument about pension plans.
19. Your eyes won’t get much worse.
20. You got cable for the weather channel.
21. You have a party and the neighbors don’t even realize it.
22. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
23. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
24. You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
25. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.
26. You send money to PBS.
27. You sing along with the elevator music.
28. Your supply of brain cells is finally, down to a manageable size.
29. You talk about “good grass” and you’re referring to someone’s lawn.
30. You have great friends who think of you often, and send you lists like this!

(I found it online at https://www.suddenlysenior.com/30-benefits-of-growing-old/)

Glass Art

We are attempting to try some new things at Venture Out this season -- we took an introductory Bocce Ball lesson, I'm volunteering at the Activity Office one morning a week, and, this past week...

... we went to the Glass Art studio to sign up for a class.

We had heard that you needed to take a class before you could use the glass art studio, and we had heard that they would be having a Christmas Tree Make and Take class in December and that the sign up was on the day after Thanksgiving (Friday), so we went over there to be there when they opened at 9am to sign up for the class.

We happened to mention that we were wanting to do the class so we could do other projects in the studio -- thankfully, the ladies there were able to take us on a tour and let us know that the class that we needed to take before using the glass art studio was a safety class, and one was scheduled for the first week of December that we could join!

Some of the projects that other residents have made...

... items hanging from the ceiling...

... work spaces for projects...

...some more projects hanging at the window...

... and projects...

... and more projects!!!

This week, on Tuesday, we took the "Glass Arts 101" class, learning how to use some of the equipment, safety procedures, and how to clean up. We still need to take further training on either stained glass or fused glass to make a project... but at least we've started!

Gingerbread mansion

When we were at the Baja Bistro for Liz's birthday party, we saw the gingerbread "mansion" that Chef Arthur and helpers had created:

It is quite the magnificent creation!

I have former neighbors who have had a Christmas "building" contest over the past few years determining who can build the best "structure" -- mom Sherie puts pictures of the creations on Facebook and the creator of the one that gets the most votes gets to pick what movie the family will see during the week after Christmas.

My favorite year was 2017 -- here are Sherie's posts from that year:

Merry Christmas Family & Friends!! We tried our hand at Gingerbread creations again this year. Please vote on your favorite to determine who will get to pick the family movie we will go see this holiday break. Please vote by Thursday 12/28. Thanks!!

#1 Discount Polar Express

#2 The Yuletide Singularity draweth nigh: a Christmas particle accelerator

#3 Snow Tubing at your own risk

#4 Reason for the Season

#1 Discount Polar Express

# 2 The Yuletide Singularity draweth nigh: a Christmas particle accelerator

#3 Snow Tubing at your own risk

#4 Reason for the Season

Update after the voting:

Kristin would like to thank all of you who voted for #4. Once again, she gets to pick the movie we will attend!

For the rest of you wondering - Philip made #1; Kory of course did #2 as most of you probably figured out knowing his creative sense of humor & I did #3 after getting so frustrated and breaking my pieces and thinking that sort of looks like it could be a mountain, lol!

Just a little background...I tried to get 4 identical houses but the store only had 3 train sets left. We put all the pieces in the middle of the table and went around one by one taking one piece at a time. We then tried to create something based upon the pieces we got. Philip got lucky in getting most of the train pieces.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a wonderful New Year!!! Thanks for voting!!

 I thought that was such a neat way to "make lemonade out of lemons" -- when there aren't enough pieces, figure out what you can do with the pieces you end up with!

Celebrating Thanksgiving!

We had a couple of Thanksgiving celebrations this year...

Keith (Dwayne's brother) and Holly invited us to join them on Thanksgiving Day. This is a group picture in their back yard -- Peggy came in from Dallas, and Keith and Holly's kids, Michael and Allison with their significant other / spouse came in to join the celebration also.

The back wall of their yard is painted like an ocean scene (in case you think it looks like we are in an ocean front location).

Lots of options for our Thanksgiving feast!

Carl and I like to have leftover turkey, so we decided to cook a Thanksgiving meal in our guest casa (the park model next door to our RV lot which we purchased earlier this year). It was pretty "interesting" cooking in the kitchen there -- figuring out what pots, pans, and dishes were available, how to use the oven and microwave, how to seat 7 for the meal (we invited neighbors to celebrate with us!).

The table in the casa has two leaves and the casa has a number of folding chairs, so we were able to all sit down to eat, though we had the food on the stove and countertop rather than trying to have it on the table and passing it around.

It is fun to have multiple Thanksgiving dinners, as long as there is time between for the first one to digest before you start the second one!

Happy Birthday, Liz!!!

Our neighbor, fellow-line-dancer, and friend, Liz, had a birthday coming up on November 30. We celebrated on Friday at the Karaoke at the Baja Bistro here at Venture Out.

Her cake -- that's a picture of her from a few years ago when she was waiting outside the Activity Office on the first day that room reservations could be made so she could get the ballroom for line dance lessons at the desired time each week!

Friend Vicki with Liz and Liz's cake. Vicki is also a line dance instructor, but now at a different park.

Liz with her Happy Birthday candle head piece

Friends Linda and Jodi singing to Liz

We had several tables of friends celebrating Liz's birthday (and listening to Karaoke too!).

For a couple of the songs, the performers invited us to come up and line dance.

Liz and Patti line dancing.

By the end of the party, a lot of the cake had been consumed, but Liz's picture was still left!

It is fun to celebrate friends!