December Doings

December has been a busy month for "fun" with good friends and wonderful family.  I didn't realize how much I missed my many friends while I was gone the past five years.  And I am blessed to have another wonderful circle of friends that I made while I was in Douglas.   I miss many of them, too.

My administrators friends, who were so incredible while I was in Douglas, are truly amazing.   We get together often for a movie, lunch, or an overnight and out of town time.   We had lunch recently to celebrate Jill's birthday.  Had a great lunch at the Biltmore.  It is such a beautiful hotel and is always decorated so well for the holidays.

Later that same day, I went to another birthday celebration for my friend (and former teacher for me).   There was a very nice happy hour in her honor and it is always fun to get together with this group of friends.

A tradition that was started while I was gone with some of the Gilbert El friends was "Breakfast in the Barn" at Shannon U's barn.   Everyone brought a breakfast dish and a gift to exchanged.  It was really fun and I am so glad to be a part of this tradition now!!   

At one of the earlier times together, several people suggested I have a party.  I have a great party house with my bar, Shenanigan's, in the basement with a pool table and karaoke.   My outside has a great patio with a bar to sit and a fire pit to keep the whole outside warm.  And the pool always looks so nice with the lights on.  We can regulate the color of the lights so we had red and green for my BAH HUMBUG party.   I have never really enjoyed the holiday season--not sure why.  I think it is all of the expectations and I don't particularly like to decorate.  So at my BH party, I told everyone that the only thing that they would see that was red and green was my red and green chili meat.   I invited former teachers and staff from Gilbert El, people I taught with over 26 years ago and former administrators.  What a great turn out!!!  We had red and green chili meat, fresh beans, and homemade salsa.    Everything was a hit and there were so many people here and I know they had a great time as I got a lot of positive responses.  As a matter of fact, I was "told" that this was going to have to be a new tradition!!!!

Then we had Kerri's traditional bean burro party for her fourth graders. I made beans and salsa and a lot of her parents showed up.   The best part--I think every student she had who is now in 5th and 6th grades came for bean burros.   And of course a lot of staff members were there.  There was some green chili meat left so I took it for the adults.  It was a hit!

Today I am going with some friends for a "pub crawl" in downtown Gilbert.  Should be interesting!!!

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying being back in Gilbert and being retired????????????????????????????