SUMMING UP DECEMBER 2015

Tomorrow I will be headed to the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.  We went last year and I did not enjoy it.  However, I told Mr. W that I would give it another try.  If I don't like it again this year, I won't be going back.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that we bought a Thousand Trails (TT) membership, but we did.  There are a couple of TT parks in the valley and we decided to give those a try.  We are staying most of the time at a park named Tropic Winds in Harlingen, TX.  We can only stay for 2 weeks and then we have to leave for a week.  So, we will stay there 2 weeks, go to a Coast to Coast (C2C) park for a week, go back for 2 weeks, go to another C2C park for a week.  We have some friends that are staying in Kingsville, TX at a county park and we may leave and go stay there with them for a week.  We aren't sure about the last couple of weeks.  But, we plan on being back at the lake around the first part of March because Mr. W loves to fish and the white bass start biting around the first part of March.

We usually have our whole year planned at this point, but this year is different.  Mr. W had a medical procedure done a couple of weeks ago.  They found something and took part of it to test.  Thankfully, it was precancerous, but he has to go back in June and have the remaining tissue removed.  So, we don't want to go too far and have to travel back.

I would like to go to the TT park on Lake Medina and the one on Lake Whitney.  I would also like to go to the Texas hill country.  The hill country is one of my favorite places.  I love the terrain, the towns, the vineyards, and the things to do.  Lake Medina is right in the heart of the hill country.  Lake Whitney is in the Waco, TX area.  For those of you who watch HGTV and enjoy the show Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gains live in the Waco area and this is where they do their show.  Joanna has recently expanded her business and opened a HUGE marketplace in Waco. 

We have some friends that want us to travel at least part of the time with them from the Florida ocean coast to Connecticut.  They want to be in Connecticut by the last week in September so I'm not sure of their timeline. They will be in the valley while we are there so we plan to discuss this and figure out if it will work out for all of us. We will go that direction to spend some time with Daughter this year.  I need to go to Memphis and spend some time with my sister who is ill.  I also want to spend Christmas with Daughter and her family this year if they plan on being home for Christmas.  So, we will see how this all works out.  I will keep you posted as plans are made.

OK.  So, here's my December in a paragraph or 2.  I went to grandparent's day at the school which I mentioned in a previous post.  What I did not tell you was that Girl-child called me one day prior to this and told me that they were having a book fair at the school and there was a book that she wanted to buy for her mom (DIL) but she didn't have enough money to buy and she also wanted it to be a surprise.  She asked me if I would help her buy it.  She wanted me to purchase it while I was there on grandparent's day and do it without DIL seeing or knowing anything about it.  Do you know how special I felt?  For her to figure out how to call me without her mom knowing, ask me for my help, and allow me to be a part of this special activity made my heart very happy.  She is a very sweet, special girl.  It was my honor to help her.

Then, Boy-child participated in the Spelling Bee at his school.  He and I had gone out to dinner earlier that week and he told me that he planned on going to "nationals" with the Spelling Bee.  I told him if he went to nationals, I would be there.  Well, he won the Spelling Bee at his school and next up is the District Spelling Bee.  He is one step closer to nationals and I have no doubt that he will make a good run for it.

There is a group of friends from high school that have started making the effort to keep in touch and get together as often as we can.  Since we were "home", we got together with them a couple of times and had a blast.  I also was able to have lunch and/or dinner with some special friends that I have not seen since the last time I was home and that is always good to see them and catch up.

We had another breakage in our 5W.  Ugh!  Our toilet broke.  The foot pedal popped off and the spring needed to keep it on popped off too.  Mr. W tried several times to put it back on and could not get the spring on.  He called Thetford and was told that the spring is put on in manufacturing and is not intended to be put back on if it pops off.  They would send us a new base for the toilet for $90 plus shipping.  We decided to buy an entire new toilet for $150.  Mr. W bought it and replaced it all in less than half a day.  This way we did not have to pay for shipping or wait for it to be shipped.  I'm glad we replaced the entire thing.  I'm beginning to think that once you have lived in one for 3 years, most things will start to break and/or need repairing or replacing.  This has been a surprise for Mr. W too.  He did not think there would be the massive amount of time needed for maintenance and repair on our rig.  I'm just thankful that he knows what to look for and how to prevent and/or fix things.

Daughter and her family came to town for Christmas.  I have really missed her and it was beyond great to see her and her family.  We saw them in June in Colorado but her girls looked like they have grown a foot since the last time I saw them.  We had already discussed doing some family pictures while they were in town.  So, DWW agreed to take the pictures and we found a park close to Son's house that would work. 

Mimi and Pops with all the grandkids

The whole kit and kaboodle

We stayed for 28 days at the TT park in Willis, TX where some good friends also have a membership.  They were there most of the time that we were and it was really fun hanging out with them.  We rang in the new year at Marina Village ("the lake").  There was a big bonfire and everyone brought snacks and the park furnished everything you needed to make smores.  We have some good friends there too and we enjoyed our time with them.

So there you have it.  My December all summed up.  Hopefully, I will have only good things to blog about on our valley travels.  Hope you all have a great 2016!