I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas--NOT

We're looking forward to a 70 degree day on Christmas. We don't share the sentiments of the intro to Irving Berlin's famous song, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."

The sun is shining The grass is green The orange and palm trees sway. I've never seen such a day In Beverly Hills LA. But it's December the 24th.

We, too, see orange and palm trees swaying here in Mesa, AZ.

But this is what we will miss this year. We've only spent Christmas with Rachal (top) and Samantha (bottom) once in their lives. They now live in New Hampshire.






We've spent every Christmas with these two. Kylie (top) and John live in Littleton..






We have no one but ourselves to blame for this situation. We're the ones who left. And we love what we are doing. But all life's choices have both an up side and a down. Being away from family on this holiday, especially, is a down side.

However, I am here with my best friend in all the world and we are surrounded by hundreds of people here at Valle del Oro who also are away from family and we will enjoy joining many of them for a festive dinner on Christmas Day. That will be after we open the many small gifts under our small tree.



We decided that since we weren't going to watch other people open gifts Christmas morning, and we didn't really need or want anything major ourselves, we would buy each other a few small things each. Eric, Liz, Kylie and John sent other gifts. We will have lots of fun this year.

And we have already started enjoying the Hickory Farms foods Doug, Sherry, Rachal and Sami sent us.

Merry Christmas to all of you reading this blog. It's been good to have you share our adventures during the year. We hope you have a blessed holiday and a Happy New Year.