RAIN, RAIN GO THE HECK AWAY!

JANUARY 6 – The weather hasn't been very nice here in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). It's been cool (temps in the 40's), and the air is filled with a misty rain since the first of the year. We've been giving our overhead heat pump a real workout the past five days. Each day we have had to turn on the propane furnace. Bella enjoyed laying on the register....silly cat!

BUT, the sun came out today, and it was beautiful. What a difference a day makes. Everyone was out walking, riding bikes, and just having a great time.

Thank goodness for the Football Bowl games. With the rotten weather, they have saved us from tearing out our hair from a bad case of “cabin fever.”

We did get some fresh South Texas oranges and grapefruit to make some juice. Yummy! Fresh squeezed orange juice is so good! It sure makes us appreciate the number of oranges it takes to make a gallon of orange juice. We squeezed, using an electric juicer, about 30 minutes to make a quart of juice. Crazy, but oh so good!

We went over to friends, Angie and Rick's, on Friday night for a fun evening playing the Horse Race board game. What a neat game. We had a great time, lots of fun, and enjoyable evening shared with a group of friends. Paul won about a $1.05; Marsha on the other hand lost $3.65. But what fun we had.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

THE NEW YEAR HAS ARRIVED

JANUARY 2 – Well, after several days snow delay, Marsha made it to Houston on Saturday.

Marsha was up and at the airport by 5:15, only to sit on the tarmac for what seemed like forever. She could see nothing out her plane window.

It took 25 minutes to deice the plane.

Where is the runway?

High above all that snow.

The day after Marsha landed in Houston, we traveled to Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. We arrived on December 30, just in time to welcome in the New Year. We attended the New Year's Eve party at the Activity Center here in Leisure Valley Ranch with many of our long time friends.

We had a brief “warm-up” at Angie and Rick's home renewing friendships with them and Susie and Chuck. After that social, we headed over to the party.

The New Year's dance was a great time. We danced, enjoyed time with friends, and had the traditional champagne toast at midnight.

Rick, Angie, Paul

Another year where the hat won't fit on Paul's head.

Leisure divas…Marsha, Merrilyn, Angie

Ringing in the new year.

On New Year's Day, it was football time. We pretty much hung around the TV watching football. Marsha did prepare our traditional New Year's dinner. We were surprised that South Texans do NOT have pork and sauerkraut for dinner on New Year's Day. They eat tamales. As a matter of fact, we had a little difficulty finding a pork roast at the grocery store. We ended up settling for a pork shoulder. Regardless, the dinner was delicious.

Unfortunately, cool and wet weather arrived with us to the RGV, and we've been forced indoors for the first week on the new year. We did stop at the Visitor's Center in McAllen to pick up several brochures on different sights to see, so we'll be “out and about” soon. So stop back and check out what interesting sights we've found.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

December 31

We wish all our family and friends a HEALTHY, SAFE, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!