February 28th:Christmas Celebration in Phoenix

Once we all rested after getting up early for the 1/2 marathon in Phoenix, we were ready to celebrate Christmas. We have found it quite difficult for all of us to travel over the Christmas holidays and this way we get to celebrate twice! Sounds funny to say we ALL rested after Matt was the one who ran the 1/2 marathon. Actually, he seemed no more tired than the rest of us, amazing what training can do. Wendy needed more rest than the rest of us while battling off a bad cold, but she rallied nicely.

Packing up and flying with a lot of gifts gets tedious if not expensive, so some gifts are delivered to homes and opened early. We bring pictures for everyone to see what we received. Matt demonstrated one of Wendy's presents, a Yoga Face Session. It is what it sounds like, Yoga exercises for your face. She said they really work. Not certain Wendy thinks Matt did it quite correctly nor gave it due credit!









Ever since the 1st Minion movie, Despicable Me, came out, Linda has enjoyed the minions as well as the movies. We have several talking minions on the front deck of our boat! It was a winning gift idea when Matt found Minion Peeps at the store.













Tom retired after serving as a surgeon at Tuba City Navajo Native American Reservation for 35 plus years. They were very fortunate to have him.  He truly is the most generous person I have ever met. He's also a lot of fun. Rebecca thought this clock would be appropriate for retirement. It would also work well on the boat but we didn't get one.

One of Matt's gifts was the envy of everyone. It is a pair of Air Relax Sequential Air Compression Massaging leggings. They use air to give a great leg massage. Fortunately, he packed them and brought them for us to try. We all tried and liked them. Tom really liked them. Maybe he'll be owning some soon?











Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the results of one of Wendy's gifts. She has started knitting so she received some knitting equipment. She brought a really cool scarf she knitted and a pair of gloves. The gloves were amazing. I can't imagine knitting a pair of gloves. They even have a "finger tip touch pad" so you can use a smart phone without taking them off. (Of course we don't really need gloves anymore on the boat!)

There were plenty of other great gifts including knives for Rebecca to use in her new home, a new hat and tackle box for me, fun t-shirts for Tom and a newly released Legend of Zelda video game for Linda, just to mention some.

We really appreciated this year's family calendar prepared by Rebecca. For several years she has collected family photos and put them into a great calendar. Given the fact we were getting together so far after Christmas we weren't sure she would do one. We're happy she did one and named it, "March, the New January" since the new calendar's first month is March!

We were so anxious to look at the pictures we didn't look at the cover. She had to tell us to turn  back to the front cover and read it.

Our Christmas gatherings include some fun games and or crafts found by Linda. This year's "game" was the bunny shooter! Click on the video to see them in action. Obviously we are easily entertained!

The crafts included making Dream Catchers. There are many beautiful hand made Dream Catchers available from the Native Americans in Phoenix. These craft packets are for 8 year olds and older.














Tom thought our craft packets were rather "touristy." As we were creating our Dream Catchers with Tom painfully watching, he was finding it hard to call them Dream Catchers. He finally gave in and showed us how the Navajoes would do it. Ours, of course, would still not measure up to theirs, but after all we are just beginners.









We were happy with the results. There are only four because Tom declined to stoop to our level and Wendy was busy designing her Bunny's outfit.

Her Bunny won the best dressed award as no one else dared to compete!

It was a long, fun day and we were getting hungry for the lobster/fresh tuna steak, dinner we planned to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of Tom giving Linda one of his kidneys. Linda's brothers were all willing to donate a kidney. That's what you call great brothers! Tom determined he was the best choice. He must have been right, 32 years and he and Linda are doing great.










I made a Kidney Anniversary Brownie Cake for dessert. Everyone loves brownies. It doesn't look much like a cake but the brownies were delicious!

Tom getting ready to blow out the candles while Linda enjoys the Air Relax  leggings.

Sunday started out with a cool morning and we happened to catch this cool picture of a cup of coffee steaming in the sunlight.

 We decided on breakfast out and Linda found a great restaurant for us. We were able to sit outside and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast. It's hard to say whether Tom's Eggs Benedict, Linda's berry blintzes, Rebecca's and my egg choices or Matt's huge Breakfast Burrito was the best choice. Everything was great.

Tom and Linda enjoyed the rocking chairs. Quite the animal collection!

We wanted to make a trip to the Bass Pro Shop before leaving Phoenix. I had been looking for my Christmas present tackle box and hadn't been able to find one I liked. Knowing the Bass Pro Shop would have numerous types, we went there to find one.

Matt even found a friend!

 I was successful and we had a fun time at the store.

Over the weekend, many hours were spent binge-watching the first season of one of Rebecca's shows, The 100.  We were hooked and had to finish the first season before we left.  Sunday evening we said goodbye to Tom, who headed out to meet some friends and then drive back to Flagstaff. Monday morning Matt, Wendy, Rebecca, Linda and I all had flights leaving within an hour of each other. Great coordination of flight scheduling made getting everyone to the airport very easy. We all made it home with no glitches.