Leaving on a Jet Plane

We are off to Mexico on Friday (actually Saturday). We will stay at a Park n Fly hotel in Millbrae on Friday night and then catch a 9:30 United flight to Puerto Vallarta out of the SF Airport Saturday morning. Dad and Shirley are already there and working on their tans. We leave with Neil and Lilly this coming weekend.

 

We had the first of our Christmas gatherings on Saturday night, the annual Christmas gathering of the Roseville Golf Club. This year we were back to the Back 9 Restaurant in Citrus Heights, which is part of the Sunrise Golf Club facility. The owner of the prior restaurant/bar was an RGC member and closed the business back in 2010. The new owners reached out to us last year and we decided to give it a try. I for one was impressed with the food and the comfort of the venue. The drinks are $3.50 versus $7 at the Country Club where we have been meeting the last couple of years. They charged us $30 a head and called last week to say they had a cut on the food prices and wanted to offer each person a free drink, so handed out drink tickets when we checked in. They also did a big golf cake for us. In the gift giveaway,  I had my eye on a foursome at Rancho Canada, the Carmel course, but it was won by my friend, Steve, who invited us to go with them along with John and Neil. I did win a twosome with cart at Diamond Oaks, so all is good. The party was great and Darla brought the Santa hats and took couple pictures of everyone. It was fun. We got home about midnight and took a nice soak in the hot tub before bed.

Darla also drove to Santa Rosa on Thursday night and stayed over with her parents in the motor home before heading over Friday to Taylor's graduation from the police academy. She hopes to catch on with local law enforcement in the Santa Rosa area, but is open to almost anywhere in Northern California.

 

The weather here has turned bitterly cold after the unseasonable warmth we had leading up to this last week. we have had overnight freezes each night since Wednesday and even had a few fleeting snow flurries on Friday night as a weather front moved through and we had freezing rain overnight. It has been so clear every other night that the temperatures have dipped into the low twenties and left the grass and rooftops frost white and caused delays at the golf courses.

 

I took Friday off from work and went to breakfast with the board of the Roseville Golf Club and then we headed over to Timber Creek in Roseville. There was a frost delay until 10 PM and we teed off about 10:20. I struggled in the cold and the bulkiness of my coat and shot a 44 on the front. I was able to shed my coat on the back as I had a long sleeve shirt under my golf shirt and pulled it together with a nice 40 on the back nine for 84. My group won the money with a net 73 on the front and a 63 on the back for a total of eight under par (we took the two best net scores on each hole). One of the other guys in our group is 16 handicap and he shot 39 on the back. We ham and egged it for a nice score. It was fun, but COLD. I'm looking forward to the 85 degrees in Nuevo Vallarta with overnight lows in the upper sixties.

 

We set up with Jennifer for her and Sam to fly in for the weekend of January 3rd-5th. McKenney is still in Pleasanton until the end of January and will come up to see them as well. We plan to take Sam out to the outdoor skating rink in Sacramento while they are here and we will celebrate both her sixth birthday and Christmas with her. Her birthday is December 21st, the day that we get home from Mexico. We look forward to visiting with them.

 

This is the week that Neil and Lilly are hosting a Christmas get together at our house on Wednesday night.  We initially told them we couldn't make it and they admitted that they have a limo booked to take us all out to see the Christmas lights. Looking forward to that. We will eat here first and then catch the limo. They let you drink to your heart's desire, but you can't eat in the limo. Okay??

 

Neil has also told us to keep January 28th open and wouldn't tell us why. he had a few margaritas last night and told me that he has four tickets to see journey and the eagles in concert at Sleep train Arena in Sacramento. Should be fun.

 

I have the office Christmas party tomorrow night. I have booked the party room at the Strikes Bowling Center in Rocklin. It is $150 an hour and includes four bowling lanes, six TVs, a pool table and a soft drink fountain. I've also ordered pizza and salad for everyone. We will not do our gift exchange until Friday as we don't want to take time away from the bowling. Also, the Dallas-Chicago game starts at 5:30. We have the room from 4PM-6PM, but Pete is paying for the third hour himself and we will stay at least until halftime.

 

Well, again, I will be on vacation next weekend, but will return with vacation pictures and stories from our visit to Mexico. I hope you are all doing well and prepared for the blitz of Christmas hype. Settle in and remember that we do all of this because God made himself human and came down to earth to save each of us from Eternal Death. That is something to celebrate this Holy Day Season. Mery Christ-mas!! Ciao.