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| The Duttons |
December was a stay at home month for us. We didn't do any traveling, but just attended Apache Wells functions (which were many) and went to a Christmas Special show at the Broadway Palms Theater featuring The Duttons. Their show was not part of our season tickets at the Broadway, but we didn't have any shows this month and wanted to see their's. They were on America's Got Talent in the early years, and were one of the finalists. They do put on a great show and have their own theater now here in Mesa as well as their theater in Branson, MO.
There were several coffee and donut functions here in Apache Wells at the rec. hall and a pancake breakfast. And can you believe in December we had a pool party and karaoke? Yep, it was a good function and the temperatures were in the 70's and 80's. They had one last month, but we were in San Diego and missed it.
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| The Needham Twins |
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| Marty Berk |
The Apache Wells entertainment this month included a comedian named Marty Berk who mimed with funny faces and props to some old time music of Ray Stevens. He also did several acts to Christmas music, it was a Christmas show after all! Another AW entertainment night included Carla Elliot who played a special key-board that simulated every instrument you could think of. It turned out to be a very good show! And then there was the Needham brothers who sang and played while we danced. You know, it's getting harder and harder to do that twist down to the floor and back up!
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| Molly busy quilting! |
Molly spent most of the month making quilts for the family. She
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| Quilts for Carrie, Jeanette, and Lynda |
finally got 5 quilts done and in the mail by Christmas and then worked on a few more before New Years. Needless to say, she was quite busy! While she was doing that, I have been converting tons of old slides into digital photos on the computer and then making PhotoStory slide shows out of some of them (Route 66 trip, eight years of backpacking trips from the 1980's, sailing and canoe trips, etc.). So you can see we didn't have much time for anything else.
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| Saguaro Lake Hike |
We did manage to get out for a little hike along Saguaro Lake from Butcher Jones Recreation Area. It was a short hike, but it was nice to hike along a lake that we knew so well, and it was a beautiful day for it. We also saw several movies this month, Fair Game about the Valerie Plame outing, The Kings Speech about King George VI's speech stammer, and Social Network about the creation of Facebook and it's founder. We like the first two the best.
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| Christmas Dinner |
The Christmas dinner was just great. Each table has a "sponser" who decorates the table and provides a sign-up sheet. You sign up for a table and bring a supplemental dish while Apache Wells picks up the ham and turkey. It's just nice to have a dinner to catch up with all your friends and meet new ones. Of course we always over-eat at these things!
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| Molly's new bike |
I did get an early Christmas present, a new flat-screen TV for the front room. We had gotten an up-grade of the DIRECTV receiver to a DVR receiver and I thought a nice high-def TV should go with it (even though the receiver isn't high-def)! This is the receiver we transfer into the RV when we travel, so that necessitated getting another cable from our RV dish to the receiver so we could record shows when we weren't present. Molly got a new bike from Santa. It is a 12-speed fold-up with 18" wheels. Now she can get out and do some riding in the neighborhood and maybe even join the biking group in the park. Two practical gifts we got each other were a knife sharpener for me and a Dutch Oven for Molly. Now we have all sharp knives and a big pot of stew!
The New Years Eve dance featured April Walker with a mid-night dinner. Happy New Year to everyone!!!
Brent
