CHRISTMAS

As usual, Christmas has come and gone very quickly.  We avoided most of the busy shopping areas but did go to the largest mall nearby on a Sunday afternoon.  The parking lot was full so we parked across the access road in a restaurant parking lot and walked to the mall.  It was full of all sorts of shoppers, some just wandering around on a Sunday stroll and others shopping with a purpose.  We got our stuff done as quickly as possible and headed back home to our quiet environment.

DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS

On Christmas Eve, we went to the 5:30 Candlelight church service which lasted about an hour and we sang quite a few Christmas carols.  Afterwards, we went to get a pizza and that turned out to be a marathon experience.  We had checked around the day before and found out that Pizza Hut was one of the only places open and then just until 8 p.m.  No problem (we thought) as we arrived at 6:45 and placed our order.  They were very busy with walk-ins, deliveries, phone and web orders so we just patiently waited for it all to happen.  Well, things went wrong: they made mistakes on orders, ran out of some ingredients, lost some orders and generally didn't get very many things right.  They lost our order while we were sitting right there in the waiting area.  It eventually worked out for us and we left with pizza at about 8:20 p.m.  Not the way we thought we’d spend part of Christmas Eve but at least we got the food and after all the troubles, they didn't charge us for the pizza.  A Christmas gift.

We didn't attend the neighbourhood Christmas dinner yesterday, choosing to have our traditional Arizona style meal at home.  Stuart cooked turkey thighs with stove top stuffing and I cooked the yams and Brussels sprouts.  We did most of the cooking outside on our outdoor kitchen counter and kept cooked items warm in the slow cooker casserole on top of our “new” oil heater.

OUTDOOR KITCHEN

OUTDOOR KITCHEN COOK

KEEPING THINGS WARM ON THE HEATER

 No Boxing Day down here, so it was business as usual today and we were on the pickleball courts this morning around 9 a.m.  It was cool to start but then the sun came out and we had a great day.