Six, ten-hour work days in a row - Wed. - Mon., Dec. 17-22, 2014

I knew it was coming; in fact, I volunteered to work two extra days to help cover for a co-worker who was on vacation. I love my job, so it's fun for me, but it left little time for anything else.

Wednesday night, Dec. 17, we went to our RV park employee Christmas party. Carefree Properties and Travelers World put on the party in appreciation of their employees. What a wonderful evening. We didn't have to do anything but show up. Appetizers were placed on the table with care. Crackers and cheese were what we found there.

Vicki, my co-worker's wife

Dinner was catered by The Big Bib BBQ. And a scrumptious BBQ dinner it was: chicken, pulled pork, beef tips, brisket, sausage, and jalapeno sausage, sweet potato casserole, green beans, peach cobbler, cheesecake squares, BBQ sauces, and bread. Brenda (manager) made her yummy corn casserole.

The staff presented Terry and Brenda with gifts, both serious and funny. Terry had a serious accident about a month ago. The staff's gag gift to him was a child's plastic chest shield and safety goggles to protect him from further accidents.

Terry modeling his safety gifts.

It was a memorable evening. Thank you to Brenda, Terry, Travelers World and Carefree Property Management. 

Bob is still under the weather with his nasty cold. Lots of deep coughing, nose blowing, and sneezing.

Thursday: Work

Friday: Work. Travelers World RV Resort had their Christmas Parade at 7 pm. Residents and guests decorate their golf carts, bicycles, and pets and go on a parade around the RV park. Everyone votes on the RV site with the best Christmas decorations. Then cookies and hot chocolate are served in the Recreation Hall. With Bob feeling under the weather, we opted to stay in to watch the finale of Amazing Race and then Shark Tank. Earlier in the day at work, I took photos of Ralph's (my co-worker) decorated golf cart. He was very clever. See if you can figure it out. [*See the bottom of this blog for the solution.*]

Ralph and Vicki's cart

This is the puzzle

Saturday: Work. Oops we snuck in two more Christmas parties tonight. Bob does accounting work for Z's Wood-Fired Pizza and they invited us to their party and gift exchange. They live on a 60-acre ranch with goats out in Welfare, Texas. When we drove through their gate, we were definitely on a ranch that raises goats. We stopped to take a picture. Big mistake! Immediately every goat within view came over to the car. Soon, there were goats putting their hooves up on the Escape pod trying to stick their nose in Bob's window. He was trying to get a picture for me since I was driving.

Did I mention there were some adorable kids in the tribe? When it was time for me to drive on, I was freaking out because some of the kids were in front of the car. I couldn't see them. So I crept along and didn't hit any.

Zach and Jodi greeted us warmly and welcomed us into their home. Their Christmas tree was beautifully decorated and had all blue lights on it. A table in the kitchen was loaded with appetizers, and another table had punch, soda and liquor. In the oven were three lasagnes: one vegetarian, one with beef and pepperoni, and one with beef and mushrooms.  Jodi and her friends were busy in the kitchen preparing even more food. You could tell they were used to cooking for lots of people.

We munched on veggies, chips, crackers and cheese, and then a hot artichoke dip. Soon after that dinner was served. We helped ourselves to our lasagne of choice, hot garlic bread, and green salad. Bob was pretty miserable with his cold.

The gift exchange was supposed to start at 7 p.m. We ate dessert. Still no gift exchange. Bob's coughing was getting worse as the evening wore on. Around 7:40 they started handing out numbers for the gift exchange. We opted to head out because we had one more party to go to at Random. We left our gifts there and headed out, with apologies to the host and hostess.

Random's Christmas party was also tonight. Bob's son Randall works there and we love going out to visit Randall, hear live music, and have a beer. Lucas Jack, who sounds a lot like Elton John was playing. Just so you know how good Lucas Jack is, he opened for Journey when they played the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The music was wonderful. I had hot chocolate with mint and marshmallows, and Bob had a hard cider (which he didn't finish). We were there about 25 minutes and home by 9 p.m.

Sunday: Work.

Monday: Work.

And that pretty much takes care of that week. Tuesday is much more varied. Stay tuned!

*Solution to Ralph's clever decoration: "Chess nuts roasting on an open fire."