And a Merry Christmas to all!

Katie and I had a great Christmas, starting with Skyping our families in Vacaville and San Diego.  We were able to see Lauren and Drew and Kristy and Matt, all in their new Christmas jammies, and all the special toys that Santa brought everyone.  Then we Skyped with Kennedy, Gavin and Graydin and Tom and Trish, and saw all the special gifts Santa brought them.  I love this Skype thing!  After hanging up, I had this wonderful feeling that I was there participating, and hadn't missed too much by spending my Christmas in the middle of the Arizona desert.  You can say what you want about technology - I love it.

 Merry Christmas from Katie to all the other furkids!

Then I  met up with my fellow Quartzsite Dingbats and we loaded into a Jeep, a truck and an SUV and headed over to Sweet Darlene's for a full Christmas dinner.  There was a buffet of special breads and salads to start, the main course with ham or turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, yams, gravy, and fresh carrots topped off with a slice of apple pie with whipped cream, and a drink of your choice.  It was a great dinner, and the cost was $9.95, 50 cents extra for my coffee.  I have enough food left over for a few more meals, and it was all really good.  I wish I brought my camera to dinner, but I didn't even think about it.

When I got back to The Palms, I actually took a nap for about two hours!  I've never done that before on a holiday, but I was so sleepy after that nice meal, and a nap felt good.

Then Katie and I woke up and walked around the campground with the camera trying to get some good Christmas sunset shots.  The sky was beautiful, but not really any clouds to make it interesting.   Still, a very pretty, peaceful, calm Christmas evening.

Our Christmas evening walk at sunset

 Merry First Christmas!

When we got back from our walk my neighbor, Hazel, came over for a visit.  She has been sick for a while with the flu or bronchitis or something that has really had her down.  Hazel is the one with the Great Danes, and they haven't been out and about much, but she did come to the Christmas dinner this afternoon.  Anyway, we had a nice chat, and hopefully she is on the mend and will be back to normal soon.

After getting The Palms all buttoned up for the night and Katie settled, I went over to the campfire to get some Christmas Campfire shots.  Three of the men were there, Bob, Don and Ron.   Ron had his laptop there, and was showing a slide show of past years at Quartzsite with the Dingbats.  The group changes from year to year, and he had photos of people who are here this year, who are coming after Christmas, and some who aren't going to make it in 2011. 

 Our Christmas sunset

There was a sliver of a moon setting and I tried to get a photo of it.  After lots of tries, I got one that was pretty good, and one I liked that wasn't steady, but interesting.

 Christmas Moon in Quartzsite

This is what happens when you don't have a tripod, but I kind of liked it:

And that was our Christmas for 2011, our first one full timing in The Palms.  Katie and I are both tired, and ready to call it a night, but I wanted to have a post for today to mark our First Quartzsite Christmas.

Bob, Don and Ron around the campfire

 Good night, Palms

From Me and Katie, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  :)