Auntie Violet's Day

Today was finally Auntie Violet's long awaited wash and wax day. We had planned to get the job done as soon as we arrived in Mesa. But first we needed to get the roof sealed, which we did get done. Then we needed to let the roof fix cure for a week before we dared to have a pressure washer near it.

Joe from ASAP Mobile Repair Service recommended his friend Ryan who owned Renegade Mobile Detailing as a good person to hire. This morning a little after eleven, Ryan and his employee arrived.

Ryan said that he had originally had a bricks and mortar shop as well, but as the economy went south, he down-sized to just his mobile unit.

While Ryan started washing Auntie Violet with the pressure washer, his helper was up on the ladder scrubbing away --

After washing and rinsing the rig, they started the waxing and buffing job --

By the time they finished, Auntie Violet was glistening in the sunlight --

It took the two of them a little over four hours of pretty intense work, but they got the job done. And Auntie Violet is very happy!

Christmas Decorations

This evening, after hamburgers at Fuddruckers, Tom drove the four of us around the Valle del Oro.

We took a look at all of the winners of the holiday decorating contest at the park.

 

There were categories for park models --

and ones for RVs.

Some of the decorations were quite elaborate --

While others were quite simple.

This one just put lights on their cactus and aguave plants.

Others had lots of icicles.

This one strung lights on a bicycle --

I really like the ones with blue lights. This one had snowflakes hanging from the palm tree that looked almost like dates...

These people decorated all the way back into their Arizona room --

This was one of the RV winners.

This blow-up Santa was riding a three-wheeler with a cargo of reindeer --

This one's wheels turned as he went.

Looking down 76th Street which won the "best decorated street" award --

These folks had a blow-up penguin.

I liked these candy canes.

This little train was being watched over by deer.

A pretty Christmas tree.

How about the bear with the Santa hat?

This one won the "Best of Show" award --

with its red, white and blue palm tree.

Company for Dinner

I bought a stuffed pork roast at Costco that just begged to be shared with company, so we invited Juni and Tom over to share it with us. It was stuffed with apple sausage dressing and was really good. I fixed butternut squash with some honey, butter and nutmeg that went well with the garlic mashed potatoes and green salad that Juni brought over. We ate really well to night --

 

I have been hungry for a cherry pie the last few weeks and had bought some cans of cherries in order to make one. I decided that I would make a pie for our dinner. As I opened the first can of cherries, I noticed that the juice was awfully dark. Then I looked again and realized I had a can of bing cherries, NOT pie cherries! The picture on the can looked just like regular sour cherries unless you looked really closely. At that point, I wasn't sure what to do, so decided to just go ahead and make the pie out of the sweet cherries. I added a little less sugar than I normally would, but made the rest as I normally do.

The pie actually turned out pretty well. I thought it was a bit too sweet, but Forry really liked it. Tom agreed with me, thinking it needed some lemon juice to make it a bit more tart. Juni agreed with Forry and thought it was quite good.

Not sure what Forry was thinking about when I took this picture -- maybe he just ate too much?

Musings Upon Bed Making...

I was reading something the other day that has sort of stuck in my head. The author commented that the only reason she made her bed every day was because it "was an island of calm in the chaos of her life."

I do make my bed every day. It does bother me if I don't. It bothers me enough that I will stop and make it when I see it unmade --  even if I didn't intend to make it.

Because of that casual comment, I started thinking about my bed-making habits. I'm not sure when I really became compulsive about it. When I was a teenager, our bedrooms were upstairs in the old farmhouse. I cannot remember much about ever making my bed and I don't remember Mom ever coming upstairs to fuss about it. (I do remember how cold it was up there in the winter time. A glass of water taken upstairs would be ice in the morning. And I can remember the weight of the heavy layers of blankets we covered up with.)

Sometime after we were married and had moved into the house that had been Forry's parents, we bought our first water bed. I can recall how easy it was to make that bed -- all you had to do was toss the duvet up and you were done. (We did wonder if the floor was sturdy enough to support the weight of all that water in a king size bed...) Strangely enough, I cannot remember nagging at our kids about making their beds either (though I'll bet they might!). It probably helped that their bedrooms were downstairs where I didn't see them every day.

 I suppose I was thinking about bed making today because I changed the sheets on our bed. I do know that there is nothing nicer then crawling into a bed with freshly washed sheets that smell so good and feel so smooth. Pure sensual delight!

Las Noches de Las Luminarias

Out in the desert twenty miles or so from where Auntie Violet is parked --

Is a place called the Desert Botanical Gardens --

I had read in the Arizona Republic about Las Nochas de Las Luminarias, the nights of the lights, which is held around Christmas time at the Botanical Gardens. We invited our friends Tom and Juni to attend with us as their Christmas present. The first musician we encountered was this harpist as we came towards the entrance --

The show started at 5:30 PM, just as it was beginning to get dark. We saw the many lights on the trees as well as the luminarias (traditionally candles in paper bags weighted with sand in the bottom).

This basin fountain was surrounded by white poinsettias --

There were white amaryllis complimented by paper whites --

As well as this tree also made of white poinsettias --

A Mariachi band was playing in this corner of the courtyard --

We saw this family of stone people watching the musicians from outside the gift shop --

Trails lit by luminaria led us further into the gardens of cacti --

 There were lights everywhere --

As we wandered down the paths, we came to this gypsy violinist --

Looking back towards the sunset --

Forry and Tom sitting in the darkness, listening to the music --

Another beautiful lit tree --

The next musician was a classical guitarist --

I'm glad this cacti was lit up. I'd hate to stumble into it in the dark!

A Native American flutist --

Scattered throughout the gardens were various sculptures. I think the most spectacular ones were these lighted glass ones --

Scattered at strategic points around the gardens were little stands that sold glasses of wine or beer. At the Garden Cafe, we had some hot butternut squash soup topped off by cream-filled churros. The soup certainly took the chill off.

It was an interesting evening. They do this for three weeks of nights with thirty different groups of musicians providing music. It is the main fund-raising activity for the gardens. The paper said that on Saturday and Sunday nights, they have as many as 2500 people visiting the grounds.