Quilting took a back seat (I know, it's hard to believe), when See's Candy called and asked me to return to work for them during the Fall Holiday season. Although I had only wanted to work about 3 days a week, it wound up being 4 days most weeks and a couple of 5 week days. Fortunately, most of the shifts were only 4 hours. The other good part for me (& bad for See's), was that they kept our well hidden location at the Casa Grande Mall the same, and because we're hard to find, we were very, very slow most of the season. That meant I got to sit a lot, which was easier on my ankle, but hard on See's bottom line. Things really didn't pick up until the last couple weeks & even then, we were much slower than the rest of the mall traffic.
Gary's pool team wound up taking fourth in their league. There have been a few tournaments since then, and Gary continues to play at the Senior Center several mornings each week.
Our park, RoVer's Roost, celebrated it's 30th birthday on November 30, 2011. A catered dinner was held with entertainment by the Bost Family afterward. We are fortunate to still have a few of the original leaseholders here, so it's always fun to share in their memories of the beginnings. As most of you know our park is the first Escapee's Co-Op park created. There are now 11 Co-Ops around the country and Escapee's has since adopted a new method of long term leases, so no new Co-Ops are planned. We're very grateful to all those who came before us when this park was created, as it's given us a great place for our winter home at an affordable rate, and most of all with awesome SKP friends who share our lifestyle.
Being a Co-Op, we all contribute to keeping the park running smoothly. This year Gary has chaired the appraisal committee, and as lots have turned over, he's learned a lot behind the scenes of this facet of the park. I've been helping with the Election and Mailing Committee, and we've both been running the Friday Sales table, where we sell the RoVer's Roost tshirts, sweatshirts, etc.
We also attended a couple geocaching events in Chandler, AZ/ One was on 11/11/11 and held to celebrate that occasion. The other was a Hot Chocolate held by a couple who go all out with their decorating, using about 150,000 lights, all synchronized to music. Of course they also had a geocache hidden there.
Unfortunately it is getting harder for me to dance, but Gary gamely supports me holding on to him. I'm getting better at maintaining rhythm while weight bearing on mostly one foot, but it's still a challenge. coincidentally, renters on our neighboring lot came here especially for him to have an ankle replacement in Phoenix. It's been just over a month and he is doing fantastic. I'm keeping a close eye and learning all I can about the "inbone" appliance they used. We're down to about 10 months til Medicare kicks in and hopefully that will me me next year at this time.
A local church put on a Bethlehem walk, where everything was done in period costume and settings. It was a walk through the market in Bethlehem and a living nativity scene at the end. It was beautiful and very well done.
Sad news touched us this Fall as well, when we received word that Gary's second daughter Tori had passed away at her home in Portland, Oregon. As of this writing we don't know the details or have the final reports. There will be a celebration of her life on her birthday next summer.
Here's a Christmas picture of Gary with 13 year old Rusty and Katy with 8 year old Spicy. We tried for one of the four of us, but getting the two dogs to smile at the same time proved impossible.
A Very Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy New Year to all our friends and family. We are beyond grateful for your friendship and caring support throughout this year and every year. May you all receive many blessings in 2012. We hope to see many of you this next year.
With Hugs, Love, and still dancing........................
Katy, Gary, Rusty, and Spicy
No comments:
Post a Comment