December 26th - January 1st - Casa Grande

On Boxing Day, Derek and Laurel invited us over for dinner for lunch so we could be in the sunshine. Great steak, mashed potatoes and salad.

Karen stopped by with Tux for a visit.

Tuesday, December 27th. Well it is official ... I have caught Malcolm's nasty cold. Fortunately most of our get together's with our friends are outside in the sunshine, so I will not contaminate anyone else. Unfortunately for Ray, he will probably catch it. This is the first cold I've caught in 2 years. With the help of some NyQuil I'm getting enough sleep though. Ray drove Derek and Laurel to Casa Grande ruins for a tour.

Wednesday, if I thought yesterday was bad ... today's much worse. Kept myself quarantined from friends. Tomorrow hopefully I am feeling better as I am cooking prime rib dinner for 8 and the sun is out so we can all be outside.

Thursday was my BBQ'd Roast Beast dinner for 8 including yorkshire puddings. Fortunately I was feeling better in the morning to get things done. Having the dinner at 2 pm in the sunshine worked perfectly. It was cloudy all morning but the sun came out by 1 pm for so everyone stayed warm. Thanks to everyone for contributing. By 6:30 pm I was back in bed for the night.

Karen offering Wayne one of Sandy's jalapeno stuffed peppers. His face says it all! 

A great time for all.

Laurel and Wayne

John and Karen

John, Sandy and Karen and oh ya Freya

Derek, Wayne and John

Dinner is done! Now I can just veg out with my cold.

The only lively person after dinner was the dog!

Friday morning we took Freya to the vet here in Casa Grande. Her left front leg is giving her some trouble and she is limping. It has been on and off for 3-4 weeks but the last three days the limp has become much worse. Diagnosis was probably a soft tissue injury but we had her get a blood test for Valley Fever.  A symptom of Valley Fever is limping, and as we are in Arizona where it is prevalent, it seemed the way to go. Results in 5 days. Unfortunately this means limited exercise for the next couple of weeks. Great.... her brain says go even if her body does not agree. I hope the pain medication that were prescribed slows her down. I am still not getting any better with the cold either. Yuck. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for all of us as it is New Year's Eve and I have a party to attend.

December 31st, New Year's Eve

The bunch of us were all in our seats for the party by 6:30 pm. It had been a cold and showery day, although the rain let up just in time to walk over to the hall. The Band played pretty good listening music but the dance floor only filled a handful of times. I lasted only an hour and a half before it was back to bed for me. Ray managed to last until midnight. It is pretty funny once everyone shouts Happy New Year the hall clears out by 12:05!

Clockwise from bottom left Laurel, Mike, Mike, John, Wayne. Karen, Sandy, Lynette, Carmein, Deb, Ray

New Year's Day we went over to John and Sandy's for their annual Gin Fizz Fest. We brought over Mimosa ingredients.  We were all huddled outside around their campfire in a can but soon the sprinkles began again so they brought the party inside their coach. (They put me in a corner so I could not infect anyone). Another great day.

PS: Ray did catch the ilk.