The Blog Begins Again

It seems that blogging is not as fashionable as it once was. At least for many of us. Now its Facebook, Twitter, Texting or simply sending an email. But I shall try to keep this going for the next few months for both of you who want to know what we are doing – and why. The why might be harder to answer.

First, let me wish you a heart-felt Merry Christmas. I was beginning to feel that Christmas was going to arrive and I would be left behind wondering what was happening. Here’s why.

The weeks leading up to our leaving Salem were filled … make that FILLED… with Senior Adult ministry stuff, regular church stuff, getting a new RV (more later about that) ready for 3 months on the road, and just plain old normal everyday living. It seemed there was no time to really enjoy the season. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the lights, the carols, the pageantry, the message – all of it. I don’t care if it begins early; it’s too short for me anyway. I’m sad when all the stuff comes down and we have to begin a new year. But all this “about Christmas” was lost in the getting ready to leave. I told Joyce we wouldn’t do it like this again.

But last Sunday we went to church at Garden Grove Free Methodist. They had a children’s program, sang lots of carols, and the pastor preached a good message. That helped my spirit a lot. Christmas eve I looked for a service close to our RV Park. I decided the one at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church would be good. Actually they had 4 services; we choose the 7:00 one. It was fantastic. Really fantastic. It is a large church, lots of lights, big choir, orchestra, lots of carols, VERY well done. That helped me a lot. This is a view as the worship area is filling up.

Then Christmas morning we went to the kid’s house. That would be Korak, Jana, Josiah, Lilly, and Jeyanthi. Korak had a great breakfast – omelets, bacon, waffles, and egg nog. Yummy! Then we opened gifts which is always fun with the kids. Fun for me too. Guess what I got? A Keurig coffee maker – with lots of coffee packets to choose from.

How about a little bragging here. Lilly is 6 and Jeyanthi will be 2 on January 11. Josiah is 10.

Josiah is reading the Christmas story before we open our gifts.

Jeyanthi is reading the instructions while mom inserts the batteries. (Ever notice how many batteries are required Christmas morning?)

Jeyanthi loves to dance!

Let me fill in some gaps here. We had planned on traveling to the LA area to spend Christmas, New Years, and Jeyanthi’s birthday with the kids. Our plan was to leave home about the 11th or so. Then I discovered the annual Staff Open House was Sunday evening, the 16th. The “open house” is really like a progressive meal and we were doing the dessert (cheese cake with do-it-yourself toppings). So we left home at 8:00 Monday morning (the 17th) in a terrible rain storm and a little wind. We stopped in Grants Pass to see Joyce’s brother and sis-in-law and a couple friends for an hour, then left for the Siskiyous at 1:00. We made it over all the mountains with only a little rain and some light snow – bare pavement all the way. In fact we had a little sun right at the top. We felt very blessed by the Lord – the next day was snowy with wrecks on the road we had just drove on. We drove in beautiful weather until about 6:00 that evening and “dry camped” in the back lot of the Olive Pit in Corning, CA. The next day we made it to Gorman near the top of Tejon Pass. Very windy that night but nice the next day. Then Wednesday it was on to Newport Dunes RV Resort at Newport Beach. This is now our home for the next three weeks. It is a bit of a drive back to the kid’s house but it was the best I could find and works out fine.

About the RV. Well, the old Alpenlite was just that, old – soon to be 22 years. It was beginning to have some problems and didn’t have a slide out so the living area was limited. We looked and looked and looked for something more to our liking and finally landed on a 2002 Keystone Cougar with a living/dining slide. So we made a trade. Here we are tucked into our little spot, #5305. Ours is the white one!!!

I will try real hard to blog every Sunday or Monday. Again, Merry Christmas to each one of you, both of you, whatever.