The Holidays 2018

By mid December we were starting to get an idea of who was going to be able to make it to our house for the holidays.

The first to arrive were Brad and Marilyn- they are Canadians who travel in the U.S. during the winter. As soon as they arrived we visited our new favorite restaurant- El Paraiso. 

Great food, great margaritas, and best of all, you can sit outside and watch the sunset while you eat.

As the days went by, more people arrived and we enjoyed the sunsets in the back yard. With the cooler weather upon us, our new propane fire pit saw a lot of use.








Speaking of cold weather, this particular winter was horrible. Cold and rainy way too often.

Don't let this picture of our crazy Canadian friend fool you.. it wasn't that warm out!

It was so rainy that I was shocked to wake up one morning and see fog out the window...

The outdoor temperatures were sometimes close to freezing, and I have never seen the pool temperature so low.

Anyway, there were still plenty of days with decent weather, just not as many as we are used to having.  Ideally we had wanted to take the boat out sometime around Christmas, since none of our friends had been on it.

The weather didn't cooperate, but we don't give up easy, and instead had our Christmas Eve happy hour on the boat.....in the garage!

Maybe Christmas Eve happy hour on the boat will become a new tradition. We can add it to the already established tradition of the annual Yankee Swap. 

We sure do manage to laugh a lot!
















Of course, soon after Christmas comes New Years. Some of our friends (and our daughter Jess) had to leave before that, but others arrived, so we still had a full house-just the way we like it!











We started off the new year with quite a (never to be repeated) bang. Lets just say we should have been able to get our money back for the fireworks.

On days that aren't actual holidays, we still find plenty to keep us busy...

We really enjoy sharing meals, and with everyone pitching in, its so easy and so much fun.

In the evenings, whoever is so inclined will either head to the hot tub, or play Farkle or poker.

Day trips can include hiking, a trip to the Desert Bar or a visit to the old mining town of Oatman.

And of course, when we don't feel like cooking, we can always head to El Paraiso!

And then, it was 2019.....finally.