It Looks a Lot Like Christmas

Here's to wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

 

 

Of course Willy and Harley have a Weenie dog in their front yard!

Not the three wise men but these guys have been around a long time.

Not our tree but the one at Pearl Brewery park.

We have been having beautiful warm weather this week......our kind of Christmas weather. So Mary Jane, Sage, and I went down to the Riverwalk to check out the beautiful lights. I really need to learn how to do selfies.

River center mall......

The Riverwalk was really lovely. We took the boat around.

The whole side of the building as a Christmas tree.

Amazing what you can do with patio lights. This is the Hilton Palacio hotel.  Merry Christmas!

Lunch with the Kids

Saturday the kids, grandkids, Angus, and I went down to the Pearl Brewery Market. It was a beautiful day. It is getting harder and harder to get the grandkids in a picture especially Cameron. This is the way we like our Christmas weather.....warm and sunny.

Angus has a hard time understanding why he can't go play on the astroturf with the kids. I think I am getting the "stink eye" look.

After a walk around the whole area several times, we were off to Sam's Burger Joint for lunch. Angus was happy to take a nap in the truck while we were inside.

Apparently this place has a lot going on with entertainment but I have only been there at lunch.

There burgers are good. Notice the "brand"?

Cam just made the varsity soccer team in Brownwood as a freshman.....lots of work arounds for visits are predicted. They are going up too fast.

Morgan will be a teenager next month.

Big Chief Rally Part 3

Sunday morning, there was an official "Hitch Up" breakfast with sweet rolls and coffee.  And there were actually some ladies that did hitch up and leave before noon.......usually because of that four letter word that comes on Mondays and affects the younger members..."work". However, there was a significant number that planned to stay until Monday. Some decided to take advantage of the nice weather and get some more kayaking in....Rita has scratched the itch for a lot of women who go on to buy their own kayaks.

Some of us opted to check out the Perissos Vineyards.

The Texas hill country has become a mecca for wineries and vineyards. Perissos is located on Park Road 4 south of Inks Lake State Park. They have in door seating, patio seating, and tables down under the trees.

We chose the patio since the weather was very nice but not overwhelmingly hot. There were two tables of women in our little gathering.

You don't have to be a wine snob or even a wine lover to enjoy visiting a vineyard.

Mary Ann had been to this vineyard before so she gave us a little introduction to wine growing. Soil, in addition to sun, water, and temperature all affect the grapes and shape the final taste of the wine. The soil here is similar to crumbled granite. The vineyard has jars showing different soils.

Inside the winery, you can se the various casks of wine as they age.

This poster shows the wineries all over the Hill Country. Hwy 290 between Johnson City and Fredricksburg is heavily populated with vineyards.

The winery was already decorated for the Christmas holidays.

They even had a tree that was quite unique.

 

We had a great time sampling some wines, cheese, and fruit and visiting with each other. Our waiter was really great and took good care of the group bringing tastings and answering questions. Definitely a fun time.

Big Chief Rally Part 2

How could I forget the Cookie contest on Friday night......because there was so much going on.

And the winner was........Rita! She had chocolate chip cookies drizzled with mint chocolate.

Saturday was a busy day. There was plenty of chicken left over for lunch for anyone that wanted it. The afternoon featured an ice cream social provided by SkyMed who came to give us a briefing on their services.  Then we were off to bless the rigs. New members or members who have gotten a different rig have the opportunity to have their rig christened/blessed for a long and happy RVing life. I got a photo of Brenda's blessing but there quite a few rigs that Jimmie anointed. There was also an opportunity to take a peek inside the rigs which is always interesting to other RVers.

Saturday night, Lynn and Nancy catered a fantastic fajita dinner for all of us. It was great! They had all the fixin's plus several sides. This was followed by our annual business meeting. In addition to other business items on the agenda, we reelected the vice president and elected a new secretary. Each were supposed to have one minute to speak. I was nominated but hoped to give an impassioned speech for someone who has been a member longer to step up to the plate. Somehow my moment to speak came after I was elected.

Then we had a surprise visit from Santa Claus. I say surprise because no one knew that the RV park staff was going to show up to entertain us with several Christmas songs.

The planned "Surprise" entertainment came next. Marlene and Donna did a fantastic clogging performance to a Christmas song.

Cookie did a great job as emcee and had some great jokes for us. then we were visited by "Phyllis Diller" aka Jimmie. She was absolutely hilarious and had the act down perfectly.

 Judith, in the yellow T, did a fantastic version of a Christmas song rewritten in her own words. She was great.  The whole evenings entertainment was way over the top. Congrats to the cast.

Big Chief Rally Part 1

We had a chilly spell the week before but when we headed up Hwy 281 towards Burnet TX and the Big Chief RV Resort for the Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally, the weather was great. I left the dachsies at home with Dave for the first time because, although this is a great resort, the last time I was there, they had a real goathead problem.....you know those really hard stickers that dig in and are very painful.  I will tell you right up front though that they have really worked the problem and it was 100% better. And I missed having the dachsies along. The rally officially started on Friday but a lot of us were there on Thursday.

We all gathered down by the boat ramp to see the spectacular sunset.

Can you believe that it started at 5:35PM?

It was really worthwhile though.

And promised us another beautiful day.

I did manage to get a few photos of the resort before the sunset gathering. Mary Jane is between her rig (left) and my rig behind her.

The clubhouse is really nice and a good size. It has a nice kitchen at one end and a big screen TV at the other end. The pool and hot tub as well as a nice deck are just behind the clubhouse.

The office is at the right end of this building and there is another rec room for guests at the left side.

 

Friday, we had a happy hour followed by a potluck dinner which included fried chicken provided by the 2018 officers. Needless to say, we could have served well over a hundred.....so much food!