Our RV Adventures

                                                Merry Christmas to Everyone!

                                                    from Jan and Greg White

__________________________________________________________________

Jan and I got up this morning a little before 9 to find that the combination of heavy rain and high winds (very high – according to Weather.com – “winds at 31 mph, gusting to 47 mph”) had once again knocked the satellite off target, because the stakes holding the base down started pulling out of the soggy ground. Oh, well.

We left the rig about 10am, heading up to Brady’s Landing, a beautiful restaurant on the Houston Ship Channel next to the Turning Basin.

We’ve been eating here as a family on either Thanksgiving or Christmas for a number of years. They have a fantastic buffet with pretty much everything you can think of – fresh seafood, turkey, ham, roast beef, chicken, pork tenderloin, breakfast with omelets and waffles, vegetables, fruits, salads, and wonderful desserts, including large fresh strawberries and a chocolate fountain for dipping.

I’m starting to drool again, and I’m still stuffed to the gills.

Linda was being camera-shy, but I did get this picture of Piper, Chris, and Jan while we were there, with Miss Piper showing off one of her Christmas presents, the dress you saw her holding up last night.

We finally left Brady’s about 12:30 and headed home. After we arrived, Jan fill the bird feeders while I re-aligned the sat dish, though I don’t know how long it will hold with these winds. I’m starting to see why one of the rigs around here has his dish held down with 4 big concrete blocks. And I may do that next year.

We didn’t have this much trouble here the last two years, but we were parked facing in a different direction and the rig blocked the sat dish from the worst of the wind. But here the wind hits the dish head on coming off the water.

The push-pin at the bottom is where we are parked now. The one up and to the right is where we were the last two years.

Nick Russell called around 4 to wish us a Merry Christmas and say that they had moved back up to the Thousand Trails park near Orlando because they liked the area better than the NACO park at Peace River where they were.

We had thought we were in for the night, but about 5:15 our friend Maria Sutton called to see if we wanted to meet them and some more friends at the IHOP up the road in Kemah.

Well, Jan was in her jammies, and I in my cap (to keep my bald head warm), and had just settled down for a long… oh…wait. Sorry, wrong story.

Anyway, we got dressed and headed out. The place was pretty busy because it was one of the few places open, and the service was slow, but we had a great time anyway. And got a group picture out of it, too. (l to r) Bob, Maria, Jan, Me, Connie, and Herman.

We got back about 7:30, just in time to once again align the sat dish. Whoopeee!

I’m starting to think that, cheap as I am. spending $1,500 or so, for an automatic dome dish on the roof is looking better and better.

Getting home, I fixed another pot of the great coffee that Chris and Linda gave us, this time “Southern Pecan”. Just as great as last night.

That about wraps it up for a great Christmas Day. It’s supposed to go down to 31 degrees, and at 10pm it’s already 38. So, a nippy night, indeed. Thank goodness, for heated mattress pads.

More tomorrow…

___________________________________________

Thought for the Day:
My Rice Krispies told me to stay home today and clean my guns!

asdfdf

Our Christmas Eve day started out with a relaxing morning sitting around drinking coffee and talking about our upcoming travels this year.

As it stands now we’ll probably leave here February 6th, which will be the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of our full-time life in 2008. We’ll first head over to Canyon Lake, near New Braunfels, TX to spend a few days visiting our friend Gina.

Then it’s on to Las Cruces, Tucson, Gila Bend, and then into Yuma around the 23rd of February to start ramping up to Nick Russell’s Western Gypsy Journal Rally that starts the 7th of March.

Everything after that is still kind of written in the wind. So we’ll see.

About 4 pm we left the rig for Brandi’s to pick up the mail, and then on to the storeroom to get some Christmas presents we had stored there.

Then about 5 we met Chris, Linda, and Piper at the King Food Chinese Restaurant in Webster.

Christmas Eve at King Food is a family tradition that we’ve done for somewhere between 20 to 25 years. We’re not exactly sure.

We’ve actually been eating there for 32 years, since December 1978 when we moved here from Alabama.

But this year was a little different since we now have to share Brandi with Lowell’s family in Oklahoma. This is why we had our King Food dinner with Brandi and family last Saturday night.

Any excuse to eat twice at King Food is a win-win.

After our usual great meal there, we headed over to Chris’ to open presents.

It’s always been a tradition in Chris’ family that they exchange personal presents on Christmas Eve, with Christmas morning reserved for presents left by Santa. But since Piper is 17 now, Santa doesn’t visit anymore.

Here’s Chris, Piper, and Linda, with Miss Piper checking out a new dress she received.

Piper gave her mother Linda this beautiful seahorse vase she made at school. There are actually two seahorses, one on each side. Piper did all this by hand.

And here’s a bowl Piper made about 3 years ago. A very talented young lady.

We left Chris’ about 7:45 planning on driving thru some neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights, another family tradition of ours on Christmas Eve. But it had started pouring down rain while we were inside which put a damper on the light viewing.

So after a short while we headed back to the rig, to finish up the evening with one of the great coffees that Linda had given us for Christmas.

We chose Cinnamon Coffee Cake, which being DeCaf, was perfect for nighttime drinking.

And to go with it, we had one of the gifts we got from Brandi and Lowell, a box of Williams-Sonoma Croissants.

These croissants are fantastic, so good, in fact, that they’re on the list of Oprah’s Favorites.

They come out looking like this, but they start as little frozen logs. There were two types in our box, plain and chocolate-filled. And both are delicious.

They’re shipped overnight, frozen in a Styrofoam container. You let them thaw out and rise for 9 hours and then pop them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or 13 minutes in our convection oven.

They come out crispy, flakey, and fantastic. And a perfect match for the coffee from Linda.

All in all, a beautiful end to a great day!

More tomorrow…

_____________________________________________________________________

Thought for the Day:If you give someone a piece of your mind, be sure you can get by with what’s left.

adsf