We started off the month by getting in the Christmas spirit at the Casa Grande City Christmas Lights Parade.  Its a pretty big deal for a small town and we hurried downtown just at dark, stopped for  a picnic dinner from McD's and pulled our car up to a barricade where they had closed one of the side streets.  We had front row seats sheltered from the cool breeze that followed the all day rain we'd had on December 1st.  Many of the local RV parks had entered floats along with many church, scouting and school groups, fire departments, Boys and Girls Clubs and local businesses.  On December 7 we attended the Palm Creek Chorus Christmas Sing-Along.  Our neighborhood gang filled two tables in the ballroom, munched on cookies and hot chocolate and enjoyed the holiday music and skits and the visit by Santa.  Once we were filled with holiday spirit it was strange to walk back outside into the sunshine and palm trees.
 

Palm Creek's theme for this year is a world-wide cruise, so they put some wheels on our ship and brought it to the Christmas parade.  They won 1st place for their costumes.	The Eloy Fire Department lit up the night with their "decked out" truck	Our neighbor, Connie, sang a solo at the Christmas sing-along.

The somewhat cool weather continued into the month and with the days getting shorter and shorter our neighborhood happy hours were sometimes held gathered around propane fireplaces, held indoors or canceled altogether.  As the weatherman proclaimed "this is highly unusual" we endured two weekends of rain, rain, and more rain.  But, since we are in an extreme drought area, the rain was greatly appreciated and it raised the water level in the lakes, rivers and reservoirs considerably.   We did, however, manage in between storms, to still get in quite a bit of golf and tennis.
A group of about 75 attended the monthly "social" of the tennis club.  We celebrated the Christmas spirit with ham and a fantastic spread of pot-luck dishes.  There was quite a bit of fun as we opened and exchanged our white elephant gifts.  As always, there was one that became the much sought-after gift, but it didn't come home with us.
 

At one of our happy hours we celebrated the success of our friends..Ted and Larry got a gold medal for doubles play and Mary a silver in a pickleball tournament in Tucson, while Bob got a hole-in-one here at Palm Creek.         Wow!	Under the direction of member Doug Anderson our Tennis Club members had a great time exchanging white elephant gifts after sharing a delicious dinner.

December 14 was the day in between two birthdays in our corner of the park.  So, we put on our layers and fired up the grills and fireplaces for an evening of celebration for Dennis Shafer and Bob Kanable.  For that one day, they were the same age (62!)  Again, we enjoyed the talents of the great cooks among our friends.

Before we headed to Illinois for the holidays there were a few more activities to attend.   We'd had a week or so of  "below normal" temperatures calling for gloves on our early morning bike rides to the tennis courts.  But, within an hour or so, shorts and t-shirts were quite comfortable.  The local golf courses were having Christmas "specials" so Tom was more than happy to take advantage of them and found the 60* sunshine just perfect. Tom's bridge group combined a holiday celebration with a night of card playing.  Mary went for the "good stuff" then headed home to start the packing process while those serious faces considered the cards in their hands.
 

Did someone say dinner was ready?  We had another delicious dinner served up by our neighborhood gang.	The Birthday Boys....Dennis Shafer and Bob Kanable	After chowing down on Christmas goodies Tom and the group got serious about their card playing.

Our winter travel adventure began on December 21.  Allegiant Air had announced a new route between Mesa, AZ and Rockford, IL last summer.  We had made our reservations the first day they were available and got a great price for a Christmas visit to the midwest.  The distance from our park in Casa Grande to the Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa is a little further than to Sky Harbor, but it's freeway all they way and with less traffic....an easy drive.  Another "plus" is that parking is free.  And, the Rockford airport is about 20 minutes from our daughter's home versus 1.5 hours from O'Hare.  The Mesa terminal is small and there are still few flights originating there.  We arrived in plenty of time and waited patiently in the waiting room with the other passengers.  Knowing that they charge for snacks on the plane, we had packed our own lunch ( a very good thing, we discovered later!)  We were about a half hour late in taking off and once we were in the air the crew announced that they were out of "snack packs" but did have a few packages of crackers for sale.  We had an uneventful flight, sitting in roomy exit row seats, until we realized that, somewhere near the Mississippi River with an hour to go on our flight, the plane had made a very wide turn and we were now heading into the setting sun.  That didn't seem quite right for a flight from Phoenix to Chicago!  We had begun discussing this when the captain came on the PA to tell us that the entire Chicago area was fogged in, leaving us no alternative landing places, so we were returning to Mesa. Can you hear the moans and groans?  So, we landed back in Mesa around 6:00pm and gathered in the waiting room so they could tell us that they thought they had found a plane for us to try again on Saturday. (Allegiant's normal Mesa-Rockford route only flies on Monday and Friday).  We got our bags and car, stopped for dinner on the way home, threw our clothes in the washer/dryer and went to bed.  On Saturday we put on the clean clothes and went back to Mesa to try again.  Although we were slightly worried when there was no plane on the tarmac at our departure time, one did arrive and we were quickly loaded and departed without incident.  Landing in Rockford we were greeted with cheers from the passengers waiting to make the return trip to Mesa - who had also been disappointed the day before - and best of all by the hugs and kisses of our daughter and her family.
 

They had a sign just for us at the airport...until recently the Phoenix/Mesa Airport was called "Williams Gateway Airport."	We boarded the plane in half the time by using the rear entrance as well as the usual front door...too bad we couldn't take the sunshine and blue sky with us to Rockford.

In spite of cold temperatures and some fog and snow we were able to complete our Christmas shopping and settled in for a great Christmas.  Santa was good to all of us and we had lots of fun with our three granddaughters.  We spent many hours playing all the new games and just enjoying being together.  Then on December 28 - in a raging snowstorm - we rented a car and drove to Ohio, testing our memory on how to drive on slippery roads.   There we were hosted by our dear friends, Kathy and Dennie Dew, and were able to visit with other friends and relatives, including Tom's mother who continues her stay at a senior care community, Mary's brother Bill and his wife, Beth; and Tom's sister Judy, and her husband, Ron..   (For some reason, we neglected to take photos of family - sorry, folks!)  This was year number 37 out of 40 that we have spent New Year's Eve with Kathy and Dennie and we hope to continue the tradition as we treasure their friendship.
 

Merrick read us "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve...	and we left food on the lawn for the reindeer.	We must have just missed Santa.  He even answered our letters to him on Close's new typewriter.

"We are family.....all my sisters and me!"	One more time...let's try to beat Grandpa at dominoes.

They don't have roads like this in the southeast Arizona desert!  But we made the drive from Illinois to Ohio to visit family and good friends...	Liz and Dick Lehto, our former next door neighbors	Kathy and Dennie Dew, our dear friends for about 40 years	Our travel buddy, Jacques Everhart  and his friend Jo

Sunset at 30,000 feet