Joan on the Road

We were feeling lots better so Saturday we headed for a dose of family. We actually hadn't seen anyone since Christmas. Several family members made it over to Renee and Tom's for a bit and of course baby Evan was there. At 15 months, stacking and knocking over blocks, I think Ill have to stop calling him a baby :).

Thanks to his mom, Naomi, we got to see Evan playing with these nesting blocks that we brought from Saguaro National Park. He played along with stacking but really only wanted to knock them over.

Son Jim stopped in to say hi and bye. He and his kids, Jim and Mary, plus cousin Hilly left Sunday for a 4 nights cruise out of Ft. Lauderale. Seems it's a Carnival Cruise featuring the Barenaked Ladies band...a favorite of the kids (I have no clue). Today we got text messages that they are out to sea and having a blast.

While they enjoyed 80 degree temps we were all freezing here. A heavy frost devasted SoCal and fruit crops over the weekend and there is no end in sight. In fact snow is in the forecast again for our area. Yikes! So there's very little sitting outside in the sun visiting with neighbors and sipping beer :) We talked to daughter Laura in Montana and she's reallllly cold...below zero temps.

I did get over to the Hemet Library and as a "resident" of Golden Village I got a library card. This is a very nice library.

I picked up another Amy Tan book, The Hundred Secret Senses, and got lost yesterday in the ghosts of Chiangmain.

Today we really needed some exercise so we biked around the park and noticed lots of new residents. In the last few days our street has almost filled up with Canadian snow birds. Hopefully, next week the wind will die down and we'll get some warmer weather so we can meet the neighbors.

Posted by Joan at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our celebration started Christmas Eve when we all collected at Naomi and Brad's for snacky buffet, family time and a round of Robber Bingo. Baby Evan was really delighted to see us all at his house. We're all standing around talking and here's this little guy dancing around and stomping his foot like a country singer. Of course, he captured lots of our attention.

I wish I'd snapped a picture of Evan, Grandpa Tom and Uncle Jim on the floor in Evan's bedroom stacking blocks.

Every flat surface was covered with food and after we grazed for awhile, Jim and I passed out the Family Calendar. This year, because of the great price at Staples, we were able to give everyone, kids included, their own calendar. There were lots of smiles :).

We hadn't planned on the "Evan factor" in playing Robber Bingo so we had to watch out for little feet crashing through the Bingo cards. After all the prizes were taken there was a lot of fairly good natured stealing. Brad wound up with the prize box that everyone wanted and only had chapstick in it! He's already planning his prizes for next year.

Laura called from Montana so she got to enjoy the raucous game vicariously. She wondered if anyone really enjoyed it as the noise was pretty intense. We sure miss Laura and Steve. I'll bet they have that tongue scraper :)

Jim surprised me with a new camera! A Canon Power Shot S3. Wow! I love all the features...6.0 megapixels and 12x zoom...but I have a lot to learn. Then we got a Creative Zen player from son Jim which my Jim hasn't stopped playing with! We can see lots of possibiliies for this gadget. Tom and Renee gave me Photoshop Elements 5 which I've been wanting for a year. I have a lot of fun playing with pictures to create the calendar so who knows what I can do by next year. Big learning curve ahead though.

Lots of fun and love was passed around and soaked up by everyone. I love Christmas. Usually I most enjoy watching everyone open special presents but this year I must say I'm overwhelmed by what I got.

Posted by Joan at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grandson Jim came by to visit yesterday so we went to a late lunch at Applebee's and then tried for some sunset pictures up at Diamond Lake Reservoir. Too bad, the lake was closed at 4 PM. So back to our park and we showed Jim all the resort amenities. We have 3 pools, a billiard room, various meeting and ball rooms and a huge shuffleboard building. Jim captured this lovely sunset light photo of us.

After Jim and Grandpa had a game of billiards we went home and among other things, Jim showed me some Photoshop tricks that I may be able to incorporate into our calendar. We are really enjoying visiting with our grownup grandkids. Jim is studying photography and graphic arts so we spent time looking at some of our travel shots. We had a good discussion about temperament/personality style which is a topic I used to train in the corporate environment. Sometime I'll write more about that life :) .

Tonight I was invited to Baby Evan's day care Christmas Program. What, you may ask, will 1 year olds do in a Christmas Program? About 10 toddlers came out with snowman costumes, hats and jingle bells. They all stood in front and clapped, danced and jingled to "Frosty the Snowman." Picture taking didn't work which is too bad because some were more expressive than others. Evan got into the dancing and was very pleased when we all clapped. But tears came when the bells and costume were taken away. Ahhh....it's just beginning for his Mom and Dad.

Posted by Joan at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday night Evan and his Mom came to visit. He was pretty happy with plastic spoons, cups and containers. He's at the "put it in, take it out" stage. But then he tried to climb the "doghouse"!

Look at me Mom!

Saturday we celebrated Bryan's 18th Birthday! Bryan was my dancing buddy when he was about 8 months old. I would dance him around the living room to get him sleepy. Now he's 6'4", high school senior, captain of the baseball team and aspiring major league ball player. He's a pretty darned good pitcher and shortstop!

I looked around the room at the 7 grandkids and realized that 5 of them are over 18. They sure seem a lot younger at that age than I was at 18. How can that be? And they've become opinionated! And they don't always agree with me. But we still have fun together.

Posted by Joan at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight I'm in total awe of the birthday celebration prepared by my family for Mary and me. It was a special birthday for both of us...16 for Mary, slightly more than that for me!

Son Jim prepared a wonderful spread of fondue and hot pot creations. Renee and Tom added delicious dips. We all pigged out while watching the SuperBowl and tracking the score to see who'd win the house pot. What a great time!

And the celebration will continue Satuday when we go to Riverdance in Pasedena.

Sometimes words and hugs are not enough to express how I feel when I get such a huge dose of family love. Thanks guys!

Posted by Joan at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)