Christmas...

Monday I went to see Claudia to get a manicure and pedicure, I got red with sparkles and it is time for Christmas. Teresa and Karen put permanent lights on my patio outside my bedroom door, it looks awesome. For Christmas Teresa brought me three lighted white Christmas trees for the front porch. I cannot wait until I get my new van in a couple of months. The van that I have now is 10 years old and very unpredictable, I don’t even know from one day to the next if it is going to start. I got a brand-new battery but it just keeps dying. I think because the van is so low to the ground that seems to scrape on every driveway or bump in the road that it has warped the door. I tried taking all the fuses out and got a solar battery charger but nothing seems to work, it’s just time for a new one.

Tuesday I got my weekly massage, took a bath and got up late. We were having a Christmas party that night so I didn’t want to be up for too long. My mom made lasagna and Teresa made garlic bread, everybody else brought something and of course we had food for days. Before dinner we played the Christmas exchange game, that is always fun. After the game we played cribbage and I think I lost every game, I got skunked one. There were about 16 people here, friends that we were introduced to by my aunt and uncle. We always have a good time.

Wednesday about 2 AM I got an e-mail from Teresa, a big oak tree had fallen on her house and broke a couple of windows and she was without electricity. She put me to bed on Tuesday evening and didn’t leave here until about 11 p.m. I told her to come and stay here but they have cats they were worried about. I was looking on the news but I didn’t see anything about it, I will keep looking because I’m sure they will have something. Teresa and I took care into the airport, she is going home to visit her family. We went to Chili’s for lunch and had a killer hamburger and french fries, shopping at world market and target and then back home. We were going to go to the Apple store in Los Gatos but we lost all track of time. Cassidy was going to put me to bed and I told her we would be home at three, it was 330 p.m.

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." 
--Roger Caras

Thursday was a beautiful day. The sun was out and it was warm so I got to take Robby a really long cruise. We came back just in time to see Kimberly, Kimberly worked for me about a year and a half ago but moved away... I’m so glad to see her back. She’s going to fill in for a couple of girls that are on vacation and help me out with a couple of other things. I can’t believe the excellent people that I found to help me out since I moved here to Santa Cruz. I remember some of the nightmare people that I have work for me in San Jose, except for the occasional oddball I have had really good luck. Everything about living here just keeps getting better. Karen is on vacation so Teresa has been getting me up in the mornings. I realized today that I was being very grumpy and stressed out and now I feel bad. I have had one person get me up in the morning for the last couple of years so I guess I get used to things done a certain way. Luckily Teresa is good at whatever she does. I’m really very lucky.

Friday Cassy took Robby and I to the Santa Cruz killed nursing facility for Christmas party, it was awesome. Everybody got a present and it was so touching to see everybody so excited. After that we went over to the Capitol Mall just to waste some time. I ran into Linda who is in charge of the organization that got me volunteering at Santa Cruz killed nursing, it was really great to see her. We came back and Teresa made me a KELLER Christmas Eve dinner, a game hen, brussels sprouts with cheese and bacon, squash and hippie rice pilaf... she is an awesome cook. Her and Jess joined me. I appreciate her so much.

Saturday was Christmas. It looked like it was going to rain all day and I was exhausted, I haven’t been able to sleep at all lately. Somebody told me it might be the beginning stages of menopause, I’m really looking forward to that. My family wasn’t going to be here until the late afternoon so I decided to just stay in bed. Heather came over and put in a roast that she got for me, it was the most beautiful 20 pound roast I had ever seen. She cut it in half and seasoned it and we kept half of it here and my aunt and uncle took the other half up to my cousins house. After about an hour you can smell it throughout the house, it smelled awesome and tasted even better. My aunt and uncle came back and also raved about how great it was. We watched the movie grown-ups and played cribbage and just visited for a while. It was a really great Christmas.

Sunday I got up and Teresa, Corinne and I went over to pick up Bella and took her and Robby to the schoolyard to play. It has been a couple of weeks and they were both so wound up it was ridiculous. They played for about an hour and they were a huge muddy mess. We took Bella back and hosed her off, she hates the hose and it sounded like somebody was killing her. We brought Robby back here and gave him a bath and he is sleeping like a puppy. My family left and Corinne stayed here to spend a week with us. Hopefully the weather is going to be nice but if not we will find something to do, she is always really cool to hang out with.