VOLUNTEERING

The day before Christmas, we went to the Crossroads Mission in the morning and volunteered to help serve a Christmas dinner.  At both Christmas and Thanksgiving, they provide meals on 3 days—one day they serve Mexican food, one day is roast beef and the last day is a turkey dinner.  We were involved in putting food into Styrofoam containers that would be delivered to various places around Yuma and it turned out to be a fun job.  There were about 10 of us in 2 assembly lines portioning out the roast beef (Stuart’s job), mashed potatoes (my job), stuffing, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce and a bun.  The lady who was organizing us was quite funny as she was very serious about counting out the number of Styrofoam trays to be filled for each order and wouldn't give that responsibility to anyone else.  Also, we couldn't start until she gave the go ahead.  We dished up around 400 dinners and desserts and worked for most of the morning.

There were also volunteers filling food boxes to be delivered, and manning a free clothing, toys and household items boutique.  They were also preparing to serve hot meals to anyone who dropped in.  The number of volunteers was amazing and we were so glad to be part of the event.  We will definitely volunteer again if we are here next year.  It was also amazing to realize how many needy people there are in a city like this.

The Christmas live production we attended was a great event, too.  It was staged outside the church in a large amphitheatre where the audience sat on bales of straw.  The story was “Jesus is Born” and included ballet dancers, live animals (horses, a donkey, sheep), fully costumed actors and the angel Gabriel delivered his message from the air (standing in a camouflaged hoisted bucket/cherry picker).  We really enjoyed it out under the stars, although it was a bit cool.

Christmas Day was good for us, very quiet and peaceful.  Stuart cut up a full turkey so we had some pieces roasted for dinner and he made an excellent soup with the bones.  At a later date, we’ll have the rest of the turkey parts that we froze.

We played 3 days of pickleball this week and are going out golfing today.  No big plans for New Year’s Eve—we may stay up past 10 p.m. but won’t bother staying up until midnight.  There is a big event planned in the ballroom here so they might wake us up at midnight anyway.

All the best to you in 2012!