Monday, November 28, 2011

We got Facebooked!

Arne and I had a very nice, quiet Thanksgiving. I played pickleball and then Arne and I took a long walk, resting at the halfway point by sitting on a bench next to a pond, watching the cranes and ducks. We Skyped Erik and the girls and watched Jeffrey walk. He seemed to recognize my voice from my recent visit but wasn't sure about the man with Grandma. For dinner, we went to Golden Corral buffet. Arne wanted to go at 3, I was pushing for later. We got there at 3:30 and good thing...they were closing at 4! We had a delicious dinner. I chose the more traditional Thanksgiving foods while Arne sampled a bit of everything. Later that night, we Skyped with Lisa for almost an hour.

Sunday evening we Skyped Lisa and the boys. Aaron was visiting and spent an hour visiting with him. Today we had a surprise when we checked Facebook. Nick had taken our picture at some point and posted it for the whole world to see! With these smartphones, you never know when someone is snapping your picture so be careful what you do and always...SMILE!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Calm After the Surge

November 12-18, we had five social functions. That's right...5, and three of them were with neighbors. The first event was a concert by Tony Pace, Las Vegas performer who's a friend of a neighbor. The concert and Afterglow was a fund raiser for our cancer center. Over 100 from our village were in attendance.

Sunday night, Arne and I attended a piano concert at Church on the Square.

Tuesday night was Chicagoland Club. After a dinner of chicken parmesan from Olive Garden, we were entertained for over ninety minutes by Dunning Shaw and Donna Moore. They are local performers and Villagers love their impersonations of famous singers. Since Tony Pace did a similar show, I found Shaw and Moore to be a little long. Of course, Tony performs in Vegas making him a bit better. Speaking of Chicago, how 'bout those Bears! Sadly, QB Cutler broke his thumb trying to be a defender. That's not good news.

Wednesday, the 16th, our village had an East-West golf challenge. Arne and I played for the East side. I played championship bracket (full 9) while Arne, in his first golf event, played executive (par 3 course.) We each won our match but it didn't help my team. The East executive group won while the West won championship. Afterwards, we all gathered at a rec center for a pizza party and presentation of the blue ribbons, which Arne got but not I. :-(

Friday night we were invited to the beautiful home of our neighbors from Switzerland. They invited 95 neighbors to help them celebrate the receiving of their permanent Green Cards. We brought them an apple pie with a story of the history of apple pie as an American icon. Hard to think of something for people who pretty much have everything.

This week we are keeping things quiet, including Thanksgiving. I hope all of you are enjoying time with friends and family. Arne and I will be celebrating alone with no special plans for dinner.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Warm, Cold, Warm

I left warm Florida for New Mexico where the weather was cold at times. However, the love of family was warm as I spent precious time with my son, Erik, and his three children, Kadin, Gracie and Lil E, AKA Jeffrey. I flew to Albuquerque on November 1 and took the train to Santa Fe. Since it wasn't Erik's day to have the girls, I was totally surprised when they ran up behind me. Amanda was kind enough to let them stay with Erik, and me. The girls didn't have school Thursday or Friday so I had two whole days to spend alone with them. Since Erik's time with Lil E is limited, I had Wednesday and Thursday from 3-6 PM and Sunday from 12-6 PM to get acquainted with my cute and happy grandson. On Sunday, he finally came to me. Since I probably won't see him again until April, we'll have to start over on our relationship. I flew back to Orlando on Tuesday, Nov. 8th. Here are some pictures from the week.

Gracie with Skull Erik just purchased for next year


Gracie playing the part of an "invalid"


Kadin on the trampoline


Kadin and Gracie "skateboarding" on trampoline


Erik and Lil E


Erik's front yard after light snowfall


Erik's back yard after snowfall


Gracie with her skateboard


Erik helping the girls tie-dye the curtains for the room.
I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of the finished projects as they turned out great.


Erik and Lil E


Wednesday, Arne and I attended a piano workshop given by Scott Houston.
I signed up to start his Play Piano in a Flash class in January.