HAPPY NEW YEAR

We saw this poem in one of the stores and I'm afraid it applies to many of us.
I'm on a low fat diet
during the holidays
So far it's working,
the fat hangs lower every day!
Can anyone guess my first resolution of the coming year? May we all attempt to improve ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. May you all have a year full of love, happiness and good health! Happy New Year!

CRIB SETS

Inside one of the buildings at the LDS Church, was a room full of crib sets from around the world. They were very different-yet the same-very interesting.


Here's one from China, complete with slanted eyes.

An Amish version.

This one is from Ireland.

Alaska's includes a moose.

This Nativity scene is the American Indian version.

There were many more-from the Philippines, Italy, Poland, Kenya, Nepal etc. It was well worth going to see them!

MORMON TABERNACLE IN MESA

The other night we drove up to Mesa to see the Christmas lights at the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

They have lights everywhere from the ground in their flower gardens to the tops of the palm trees right beneath the fronds.

Even the orange trees have lights.

They use many colors.

The crib scene was beautiful.

The wise men were on their way.

This is another first class display-it's amazing how many we've seen, and how different they are. Another neat experience!

LUMINARIES

Following a long tradition, on Christmas Eve at Fiesta Grande, volunteers make and distribute 4000 luminaries that line the streets of the park. They've got it to "an art form".

At 5:30, you light your own and your neighbors. Here's our street after dark.

From our home to yours, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that Santa is good to all of you-even you "naughty ones"!!!

NEWSFLASH

Good news for the Mulert family today! After six weeks of crossing fingers and serious praying, Russ has a new job. It's a wonderful Christmas present for his family. As I've said many times, the Lord has a plan for us, and it's usually better than before-and it happened again! Yea!

AN ACT OF SYMPATHY

Mulert has been feeling very sorry for all you northern people who have to deal with Mother Nature's surprises. I'll bet you're sick of shoveling already. It isn't even winter yet-is it? Anyway, today , the old guy picked up a rake and performed an act of sympathy for you. It didn't last long, but-I'm sure you all feel a little better, knowing he's thinking of you!

WE MADE IT TO CASA GRANDE

On Tuesday, we finally made it to Casa Grande, and pulled into Fiesta Grande.

It didn't take long to get parked and settled. We have a corner lot with flowering bushes along the side.

We have three different colors.

We then went with Al and Shirley Ludeking to get an In and Out burger and then played 65. Life is good!

BENSON, AZ

After a very windy, rainy night, we had a strange thing happen in the morning. It was raining with the sun shining, along with a rainbow.







It was cool!

ALONG THE WAY

I know this is a pitiful amount of snow compared to how much some of you have been blessed with, but it was fun to see along the way.
It looked rather dreary when we left El Paso-the traffic didn't help.

These highways always amaze me. People from small towns must really be freaked out. They measure the size of a town by the number of stop lights-how would they count these?

Later we passed miles and miles of dairy cattle-very exciting!

I guess we looked harmless, we got waved through the check point.

We finally went through one of my favorite areas where rocks are piled like someone did it. Mother nature is sure smart!

FINALLY-A GOOD DAY!

Day four went well! Not much to see out the window except oil wells and cattle, except for cotton fields.

A lot of it was harvested.

There were hundreds of windmills along the hills in the distance.

The plan for today is to get as close to El Paso as possible. It will depend on where we can find a safe campground in the middle of nowhere, along the border-at the same time Mulert gets tired.
Should be interesting!

WICHITA FALLS, TX

A normal person would take a picture of the falls for you, but it was too cold to walk down around them. You'll just have to do a little traveling of your own. However, I couldn't leave without a picture at the post office. How many of you saw a teddy bear with a letter to Santa at your post office today?

Our campground was right down the street along the river. They had kind of a neat place to fish-here's the view out our window.

Here's proof that the owners of this campground have a sense of humor-thus, the dog area.

And last, proof we're in Texas!

DAY THREE

We headed out, hoping the third day would be the charm. I had noticed a couple signs and was looking at the map, wondering if I should open my mouth, or wait and see what happened. (thus-maybe it wouldn't be "my fault" if we were on the wrong road) However, I couldn't help myself, and after some immediate denial, I was right. An hour later, we were "straightened out", and "we" had recovered from "our" mistake. I guess "our" mistakes, caused us to be tired, so we stopped in Wichita Falls, TX. We decided last night, that it would be wise to stay here a day, and try to break the cycle, and avoid the predicted snow in our path!

OUR SECOND DAY

We started down the road and we were fine for the first 5 minutes. There were 5-10 mile an hour winds which are no big deal-but, we apparently hit a gust just right, and heard a horrible sound. We knew right away it was the awning, since it had happened in MN once, and we were able to roll it back. Not this time! The pipe had completely come loose on one end and was on the roof.


The other end looked like this. Don couldn't get it loose.

Help finally arrived and he was able to get it detached.

You can see how the wind ripped the canvas.

It was obvious that it had to be cut off.

Thank God for insurance and our road service!!! The rest of the day had minor problems and we ended up going to a casino with free hook-ups outside of Oklahoma City. I made a meatloaf, thinking we needed some comfort food!

A STRANGE COUPLE DAYS

We sfarted (Hopefully, you'll see the humor in my typo as you read on-it's appropriate!) out Tuesday morning, anxious to get to AZ and some warm weather. We had to go north to Springfield to get a decent road to make it through the Ozarks, so it took a little longer, and Don got tired-so, we stopped at Claremore, OK, at a casino with an RV park. We knew the water was off because of a water break across the road, but it really didn't affect us, because we had enough in the tank. After resting, we decided to go walk over, and try our luck for awhile before supper. I noticed there weren't any cars in the one lot, which was different from when we signed in. Mulert thought maybe they all went home for supper. An employee met us and said they closed because the water main still wasn't fixed, and it would take awhile to repair. So much for that! Maybe it was the slot saints trying to save us some money! We walked back home, ate dinner and enjoyed the evening.

LAST DAY IN BRANSON

We waited around for our mail today, took a last walk down by the lake, and then had lunch at Andy Williams' Moon River. He had a deal for Veterans-buy one steak sandwich and get the other one free. They were good. We ate in the bar where you can see some of his gold records.

The restaurant is across from his theater.

At age 82, he's doing two shows today, eight a week, and this is the last week.

After lunch, we got the Christmas decorations out of the basement and I finished addressing the cards, which are about ready to mail. Tomorrow, we'll hit the road and make our way to Arizona!

UPDATE FROM BRANSON

I'm a bit behind on the blog, mainly because I had a bout of gout, and hobbled around for a week or so. Not fun, but it's over, so on with life. Before it happened, we had a flat tire on the jeep, and now have 4 new tires.

That day we ate at Lambert's-the restaurant where they throw the rolls at you and bring the pots from the kitchen around to give you extra food-they call them "pass arounds". It's a fun place.

We made it to Russ' home in Omaha for Thanksgiving/Christmas. Dan ran in the Turkey Trot on Thursday morning, came in first, and got a t-shirt.

The food was great, and of course, we ate too much.

Of course, there were many laughs and a lot of silliness.

Russ seemed to like his shirt.

We also had a couple of those "passages" in life since Jake brought his friend, Kenzie, over to the house for the Wii bowling tournament, and Jake now has his license. I guess we're getting older!