Our Family Christmas

Our daughter, Deanne, came in on Tuesday with her family, husband Mike, and our youngest granddaughter, Rachel, but had to head back to Little Rock on Friday. 

Therefore, we celebrated Christmas on Thursday evening with them and our son, Rick, wife Laura, and grandkids, Matthew and Aubrey.

Patsy’s tree……….

The following pictures will be a gallery of photographs to let our relatives and friends see our family.

The Grandkids……….

Grammie and Poppaw with the grandkids…….

Our Daughter and her family………….

Our son and his family……………

The opening of gifts was the best part for the kids!!  To begin with, we heard a noise on the front porch, and Grammie and Rachel went out to see what it was!!  Apparently, Santa Clause made a special delivery!!!

There were a lot of gifts to open, and the kids liked them all.  Here is a sample………. Can you imagine the audacity of the first one!!!  Looking at the last line it just about explains it!  It reads, “Yes, she made this shirt!”.

The same “She” made a pillow for Patsy to use in the Bus!

The Grandkids with their favorite gifts (Rachel’s was in the box on the front porch!

The following pictures show the chaos of the gift opening and the fun that the kids had…………

I ordered Matthew a BB gun, but it won’t be delivered until December 28.  The style was his choice, and I am a GOOD Poppaw!!

And finally, a T-shirt that has a correct message!!

Patsy and I attended the Christmas Eve Service at church, and then slept late on a quiet and peaceful Christmas Day!! 

I did start on the Annual maintenance service on the Bus on Christmas Eve………… got to get ready for 2017 travels.  They begin with a 6 week trip to Florida, including the Tampa RV Show, shortly into the New Year.  That will be the start of our next post.

We want to wish everyone a joyful and Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year!!

It’s Christmas Time!

We began the season by attending the Lone Star Allegros Christmas Rally at the KOA in Conroe, TX.  The weather did not cooperate as it rained and was cold for all three days.  However, when we go someplace in the Bus, it is a good trip, and there are a lot of nice folks in this club.

We had a nice club house, and we spent most of the time in it, either eating, playing games, or just visiting.

On Saturday morning, the men made breakfast.  Here’s a couple of pictures……..

On Saturday night, we had our catered Christmas dinner and party.  Gifts were exchanged after the dinner.

A special recognition was bestowed on Richard and Nancy Brinlee (charter members of the club) for their service for the past multiple years as club Wagon masters.

On Sunday, all parties headed out to avoid more and heavier rains!!

Little Rock to Home -- UPDATED

 

We stayed in Little Rock until 3:00pm on Thanksgiving Day when we left for Victoria. 

We did eat turkey and dressing with Rachel and her parents before leaving.  It was good, and we had dessert afterward. 

In the last picture of the previous post, I inserted a photo of Rachel’s “bedroom”.  Here, it is repeated……..

…. And, of course, before we hit the road, we had to clean it up!!  Here is Rachel, with the bed back into a couch, and all of her stuff packed up for the trip back to her home!!

Before leaving their home, we got a picture of Rachel, and her parents, Deanne and Mike at the front door.

Here’s Rachel at the front door that she helped her Mom decorate for Thanksgiving with her version of a Turkey!!

As we departed Little Rock, we had a little over 600 miles to travel and needed to be home to participate in a 50th Wedding Anniversary party for a friend of Patsy’s, whose wedding she was a bridesmaid that was on Saturday.

We split the drive into 2 days of 300 miles each.  We overnighted in a Walmart parking lot in Palestine TX, and managed to “watch/listen to” the Dallas & Washington football game on the way.  It was a good one, and made the first 3—4 hours of driving more painless!!

We arrived home about 1:00pm, and began to decorate the house for Christmas while we continued to live in the Bus on the driveway……. since we are leaving again on Thursday or Friday to attend the Lone Star Allegro Club Christmas rally at the Conroe TX KOA campground.  That will be the subject of the next blog.

While working on chores around the house, I found some 40w LED’s to use under the Bus’ microwave (and above the stove) to replace the very low wattage non-LED bulbs that were there.  I wanted it to be brighter and I wanted LED’s to minimize power draw when boon-docking.  Here’s a picture with all other lights off and at night!

If any other Tiffin owners want to upgrade with the bulbs, here is a reference………..l

https://www.satco.com/s8952.html

This is the bulb with the candelabra base.  An intermediate base is needed on the Sharp microwaves installed by Tiffin. I used an adapter…….

https://www.amazon.com/ABI-Adapter-Intermediate-Candelabra-Reducer/dp/B00GGO7V0Q/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1480469180&sr=8-15&keywords=candelabra+adapter+socket

By the way, I did not purchase from either of the above sites, I found the adapters at the ACE hardware in Belmont MS while at the Tiffin factory service center, and found the bulbs at a local electric company!!  The references were only to show what was used.

Another post after this weekend’s Christmas rally!!

ON EDIT:

I uploaded this post too quickly, and forgot to attach the most important photo…………. me and Rachel!!

Also, since we arrived at home, we have received notification that more of her artwork is on line from her school.  Here is the picture……

They sell some ‘cheap’ jewelry that some silly and proud grandfathers buy for grandmothers……. such as the heart-shaped necklace shown here…..

http://www.artsonia.com/gifts/products/intro.asp?itemid=71

I bought Patsy the heart with the snowman insert last year for Christmas, and just ordered the penguin snap when this came out.  Probably not that neat……… unless it’s your granddaughter!!!

BYE!!

Visit With Rachel and Her Parents in Little Rock

When I started blogging again, I missed one story….. my beard.  I let it grow for a month, and although I kinda liked it, I did not have the patience to wear it very long.

 

We left Red Bay about 9:30am and headed to Memphis (actually Southaven, MS) to get a new pair of tires at Discount Tire, Co.  The shop that we chose was just across a street from a Sam’s Club, so we stopped on their parking lot, left the Bus, and drove over to the tire shop to get our tires. 

With their Road Hazard warranty, I got a replacement tire for less than half of the cost of the new tire, and then purchased a second tire so that the tires on each axle had the same wear.

We were finished up by 2:00pm, and with a bad weather front coming through from the West, and since the Sam’s lot was large and nice, we decided to stay over here and drive the 140 miles to Little Rock in the morning.

In the meantime, we went to Sam’s and shopped, as well as a few other stores.  Just as the thunderstorm was arriving, we headed out to a local Carrabba's Restaurant for dinner.  It is one of our favorite Italian restaurants.

Patsy likes the fall leaf color changing, and she found a few trees on the Sam’s lot……..

On Saturday, we slept late, and did not arrive at the North Little Rock Riverside RV Park until about 1:00pm.  Our daughter, Deanne, brought Rachel over about an hour later, and she had packed for the six days of our visit. 

As a matter of information, Rachel was 5 years old on here last birthday in March, but she is every bit as intelligent as I thought she would be!  She is currently in kindergarten, and has a really large list of words that she can recognize.  We bought her a coloring book with an Activity book included. On the second day, I caught her doing a small crossword puzzle where the words were listed in a box on the page……. a good accomplishment for a 5 year old.  An unbiased point of view from an unbiased grandfather….. but proud!!

In short time, we gave Rachel the bracelet and other gifts that we got for her during our San Antonio Rally.  Here she is with the bracelet……

When Deanne left after about an hour, we opened up the Driver’s side couch into a (Queen size, they call it!!), and Rachel settled into her space.  Except for running out to Walmart for some stuff, including a DVD for Rachel, and stopping at Wendy’s for burgers, we spent the evening in the Bus.

Rachel watching her new DVD on the floor……

On Sunday, Patsy and Rachel did some crafts and artwork in the Bus, while I watched some football.  I have not liked the Dallas Cowboys for over 15 years, but Dak has made me a fan again!!  After the games, we went out to a local Cracker Barrel restaurant for dinner, and enjoyed it.

We thought we had the Honda ‘flat tire’ incident behind us, but we still had a “TMPS” orange light on the instrument panel.  I called the local Honda dealer, and made an appointment for Monday to bring the car in for a ‘reset’.   Rachel was patient with the wait………

The appointment was over by about 1:00pm, and we went shopping again, and then back to the Bus for a late lunch.  On Monday evening, we met Deanne and Mile at a local restaurant for dinner to celebrate Deanne’s birthday which was back on November 10……. we were in San Antonio on that date!!

On Tuesday, we took Rachel to the movie, Troll, and her mother met us at the theater.  She really enjoyed to movie, and afterwards, we went to her favorite restaurant, The Purple Cow……. a local hamburger and malt shop.  They even have Purple ice cream.

Wednesday was our last full day in Little Rock with Rachel.  We did a little pre-Black Friday shopping, and ended up at a Walmart where she talked me into buying her a Poppy the Troll doll……… it was easy!!

And back at the Bus…………

Also, for our last day, Patsy and Rachel wore their matching T-Shirts.

Lastly, Rachel was showing off her abundance of artwork that she has done over the few days that we were here.

As demonstrated by the last photo, it is clear that the three of us have some “housework” to do before we hit the road for home tomorrow afternoon!!  But, she had FUN, and so did we!

On Thursday morning, we will leave the campground and take the Bus to a nearby large parking lot, and leave it there while we drive to Deanne’s house for a Thanksgiving meal.  After that, Patsy and I will say goodbye to everybody, and start back to Victoria! 

More on Thanksgiving Day and our trip home later!!