December 22nd to 25th – Christmas

The days leading up to Christmas were probably the most boring of my trip.  I don’t mean to dis my parents, but geez it was like coming off a high.

Mom and I got back from Phoenix in time to take Lois to Weight Watchers and go to Wal-mart.  Ye haw.

That night we had dinner at Parish Bar & Grill which is one of the places I convinced my Mom to get a restaurant.com gift certificate for.  A round of retiree karaoke started while we there…so exciting.

The 23rd was a more exciting day in the retiree life.

Mom, Dad, and I went to the Yuma Territorial Prison.  The prison opened in July 1876 and has had an interesting past, including being a high school from 1910 to 1914.  We followed that up with a tour of Old Town Yuma.  And the best follow-up of all…wait for it…we went to both the indoor swap meet and the 4E swap meet.  I’m being facetious here…it was fun.

That evening I took some time to put my Belize photos together via a Shutterfly album.  It gave me another excuse to revisit my adventures.

Christmas Eve wins the ‘crap day’ award.  It became obvious early in the day that I was getting on my Dad’s nerves, so I jumped in my car and headed to Starbucks to read and play on the internet.  I was so glad I had my own car to escape and give my parents a break from me and Kinley.  I had a late lunch at Logan’s which ended up being free.  I guess my order got lost when my ticket didn’t print in the kitchen.  Frankly I was so engrossed in my book I didn’t even notice.

Christmas morning started with me attempting to get donuts…nothing was open.  I ended up at Foothills Diner and ordered us breakfast.  After breakfast, Dad and I took Misty and Kinley for a quad ride.  Misty has her own seat with seatbelt, but I had to hold Kinley.  Given that it was Kinley’s first time on a quad and he doesn’t like loud noises, I thought he did great.

After the fun quad ride, we came back home and I helped Mom get ready for Christmas dinner.  Lois and Ralph came over for dinner, but Lois felt horrible from her chemo treatment.  It was a very low key dinner and that was just fine.

Later that evening Mom helped me take my braids out.  Everyone always asks…it took 2 ½ hours with both of us working on it.  Not fun!