Grandpa and Grandma's vicarious Christmas

How we spent Christmas...

We spent all day finishing our cornice boards. Merry Christmas, huh? Oh well, it was a nice gift for us, even if it did involve labor. Ha! Hope your day was more fun. I am certain that it was!

Christmas Eve

This is our very first Christmas by ourselves with no family around. I thought it would be harder, but it isn't so bad because it absolutely does not feel like Christmas to me. I am sure that is exactly because there is no family here and being in AZ, it is hard to get into the spirit of Christmas in 70 degree weather!

Mark and I spent the day making cornice boards for our windows and sliding door. We accomplished one window and the sliding door. It takes a long time! We decided to go with a southwest fabric as that contains a lot of color from our decor. We are both quite pleased with what we have done so far and come Christmas day we should get them all done...hopefully. :-)

Megan and family are spending Christmas with Andy's family in Le Mars. They had some dicey roads today on their journey (gotta love that Iowa weather) to Grandpa Thiel's home, but thankfully they are there now safe and sound. I think they will be going to Omaha later in the week and then should be able to see Matt for the holidays.

Well, have to go put the finishing touches on our Christmas Eve traditional dinner...frozen burgers and a salad. Ha! Merry Christmas, all!
Our patio door before:

Patio door after the installation"

Closeup..we are fixing those holes! :-)

Being sick

Mark was pretty sick all last week with a cold and he finally went to Urgent Care on Friday. They said he had bronchitis and I don't doubt that as his cough was pretty rough. After three prescriptions he is doing much better and now I am feeling crummy today....dull headache, sore muscles, etc. I suppose he just had to give it to me! I won't wait as long to go to the doctor as he did! I don't like being down.

The weather is still beautiful here, setting several records last week. It cooled down a little the last two days and we even had some rain but it still quite warm, especially when my brother Kevin told me it was 3 degrees in Iowa. Yikes! I hiked several times this week, Mark put up some more shelving in the garage and we have been measuring our windows for cornice boards. I cannot wait to see the finished product and bought the fabric today as it was 50% off. (Still rather expensive, though!)

Well, that is it. We have just been puttering around our winter home and enjoying the weather. Stay warm, my cold weather friends and family!

The tall cactus in the middle is there temporarily. Andy gave that to us when they moved and I want it to be in our front yard when we landscape.

I planted two vines along our west wall.

My geraniums were just planted. Cannot wait until they are huge and beautiful!

Me with our good friend Alice from our townhouse days. We went to Greasewood for drinks and food and it was warm and fun!

Quiet week-end

Mark and I don't have a lot planned this week-end. Mark is working on my honey-do list which I keep adding to daily. I hope he doesn't just protest and head back to Iowa! :-) Oh well, he can't go now because they are having a blizzard today. :-( I am assuming Matt and Megan are getting similar winter weather. Looks like Drew and Kayley will have snow to play in with their new winter gear.

Last night we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was as delicious as we remembered! It is only a few blocks from our home so I imagine it won't be our only visit this winter.

Our big project will be landscaping the front and back yards. There is grass out front and I want to get rid of that and put in desert landscape. I do not like watering that lawn all summer while I am not even here plus it is a waste of precious desert water! The hardest part will be removing the sod although planting and spreading rock won't be a walk in the park!

Tomorrow we are going to Greasewood (a western-type outdoor bar/restaurant with live music) with a friend who was a neighbor when we lived at Megan and Andy's townhouse. She is a lot of fun and a very positive person so we are looking forward to seeing her again.

The pictures below show Mark putting up our Christmas lights, the end result and also our neighbor's light show, which makes ours look like a night light! I also posted a pic of a cactus that the hikers on North Mountain decorated for the holidays. It is right by the decorated tree that I posted a few days ago. There is also a picture of our new garage shelving that Mark installed this week. There are no basements out here so this was a must and I just love the shelves. The garage is finally back to being a garage. :-)

Mark putting up Christmas lights

Our neighbor's great decorations

Our less impressive decorations!

Santa cactus on North Mountain trail

New garage shelving courtesy of Mark!

My farmer arrived

Mark made it to Phoenix on Monday afternoon, around 2:30. He left Omaha Sunday morning and drove ALL the way to Santa Rosa, NM that first day, over 900 miles! I only made it to Tucumcari when I came and thought that was as far as any human could drive in one day. Guess I was wrong since he went on another 50 miles! That made for a very short day on Monday plus gaining an hour. It is so great to have him here. The valley has greeted him with beautiful weather, near 80 every day and looking to set a record this week-end.

We started right in working on our garage. I am painting it and he is going to put up lots of shelving so we can get our junk off the floor and allow us to get both vehicles put away at night. We are taking a break this afternoon and putting up Christmas lights outdoors. This neighborhood gets very festive so we don't want to look like old scrooges!

This morning I hiked North Mountain once again. I really enjoy the challenge of this trail and see lots of familiar faces now. They have a small desert tree near the top that the hikers decorate for Christmas every year so today I brought a snowman ornament up and hung it. (See pics below). My broken little toe is still killing me so I am still unable to get in my hiking boots. Thank god for Teva sandals! Mark thinks I am doing nothing to help my toe heal by hiking every day. I am sure he has a point. :-)

Yesterday we purchased tickets to the Insight Bowl here in Tempe since the Iowa Hawkeyes are playing. We have never been to a Hawkeye bowl game so couldn't turn this down. After purchasing we learn their star receiver was arrested on a drug charge and won't be playing. :-( That kid probably just lost a lucrative career in the NFL and is headed for the pen instead. So sad.

Well, that is all for updating. I will tell more later when I know more!

Enjoying my life

I have been back in AZ since Tuesday. I cannot complain about the weather, of course. It has been in the mid to upper 70's each day and always sunny. I think that is my favorite thing about being here....so much happy sunshine!

I have been shopping, hiking and replanting my frozen, dead geraniums. All my plants bit the dust while I was in Iowa for Thanksgiving. It seems Phoenix had a very "unusual" freeze for November. No kidding! It about killed me to throw out my tomato plants with their brown little fruit dangling. :-( I didn't buy any new tomato plants as I have decided Costco tomatoes taste just fine and will stick with colorful flowers instead.

I have the Christmas tree up and decorated but there won't be any presents under it unless Mark brings me some. Hint, hint... Everyone else is getting money from us, thus, no packages!

Below are pics from my hike this morning on North Mountain and also one of our orange tree which is starting to turn. Hope Mark feels like eating a lot of oranges this winter!