Christmas

We had a great time Christmas day at Mom's house.  All of Janice's sisters, Brittney, and Taylor were there.  It was a cool, rainy day but we had a great time indoors.  Here are a few pictures.

 

Christmas lights

I strung up some lights at the campground and tried to get a picture of them:

 

We have been busy with last minute shopping and getting ready for Christmas at Mom's house.  We have a pot of chili on to have later today.  Some rain today and an expected hi of 61.  Starting to cool off some tonight and tomorrow.  Do I miss my family up north?  Yes!  Do I miss dealing with snow and blizzards.  No!  We finished giving out the Christmas food boxes at the soup kitchen Monday and Tuesday.  No more work there for awhile.

Holiday decorating

What is Grandma doing now?



 

 

Oh, I see, a little holiday decorating.

 



Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our church opened at 4:00 and the mariachi band played from 4:30 until Mass @5:30. After Mass they had a breakfast of pastries,tamales,menudo soup and a drink that I think is called horchata. It was very interesting. I worked at the soup kitchen from 10:30 until 4:30.

Working at the Soup Kitchen

Bob is working at the local soup kitchen this week, unloading truck and sorting food for their Christmas boxes.

 

 

 

Wednesday and Thursday

 Wednesday I was hungry for a big breakfast, so I got out the Coleman stove.

After that breakfast, I needed a hike in the woods.  The pond was very calm.

 

 

I always enjoy looking at unusual shaped trees.

 

 

Thursday as I got out of the Jeep at Grandma's house I saw a little guy looking out of a flowerpot on top of a post.

 

I moved the pot and there were two little lizards under it.  Can you find them in this picture?

 

 

 



 









 

Zyzzx Street

I thought that this was an interesting name for a street

Soup Kitchen

Janice went to Atlanta Thursday to spend a week or so with Karen and Amy. I worked at the Carrollton soup Kitchen Friday from 8 to 2:30 and today from 8:30 to 11:30. Yesterday was cooking and serving. Today was folding and taping boxes for their Christmas boxes.

Catch Up Post

Since I have the computer at Mom's today, I will post a few pictures from the last few days. Thanksgiving was spent at Amy's inlaws in Atlanta. They have a large beautiful home and we all felt very welcome.

 

 

 

 

Saturday was a beautiful day so Bob was out wandering in the woods at our park.

 

I found some interesting tree roots.

 

 

 



 

 

No Internet here

The park we are staying in has no Internet access, so I haven't been posting for a few days. We have been out hiking on the trails and sightseeing in the area. Today we are at Mom's house catching up on email and laundry.

In the Kitchen

We are at Sharon's today. Janice, Sharon, and Taylor are busy in the kitchen getting ready for tomorrow.

Back in Carrollton

We are back in the same county park again. No internet here, so I posted this using the free internet at the grocery store in town. Sunny and warm here again today.

Black Squirrels in the Park

We went out this morning for a little shopping, but most of the day we have been in the park here.  We have been enjoying the black squirrels here.

 

 

 

The ducks and geese are always fun to watch.

 

 

And the falls are always impressive.

 

 

We will be staying overnight here again tonight and will probably head to Carrollton tomorrow.





Gadsden, AL

We arrived here tonight and went to Vic and Phil's house. We will be here for two nights at least. Will try to post some pix tomorrow.

A Driving Day

We had to go back to a fabric outlet store to pick up some material that didn't come in until 10:30 today so we didn't hit the road until after 11. Drove all afternoon stopping only for gas and a driver switch. Beautiful warm and sunny day! We are now back to Fern Lake Campground in Paducah, KY. I didn't get pictures of the bridge where we crossed the Mississippi River, but here is a link to some: http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesC/umissC12.html

National Tiger Sanctuary

Spent some time today at the National Tiger Sanctuary: http://nationaltigersanctuary.org/ .  A very interesting and informative tour.

 

After leaving the sanctuary we stopped by a fabric outlet and and army surplus store.  Then we went out to a Camping World store.  We are changing some of the interior lamps in the motorhome to LED type lights.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

We are still in Springfield.  Today, we headed out to the Wild Animal Safari. It was very interesting, with a walk through area and then a 5 mile trail to drive through. We paid our admission and bought some animal feed and headed out.

 

 

First, in the walk through area we were greeted by a peacock.  Then we fed most of the other animals that we were allowed to feed.

 

Then we took the Jeep through the gate and down the trail in the woods. Stopping to feed most of the animals that we saw.

 

 One camel was very annoying and chased the Jeep for quite a while.  He tried to chew our front fender extension off.

 

Overall, a very enjoyable day.  We are going to stay here at least until Thursday.  Very pleasant weather during the day, even though the nights are around freezing.