Arizona Dreaming: Hanging Out & Happy New Year!

Hi there!!

We are having a lovely time although it could be a bit warmer. It's unseasonably cool here this year and we are getting a laugh at the locals shivering and hopping around trying to stay warm in their winter coats, if they have one. Most of the plants are being covered at night because of the frost. Cactus will frost on the tips and then I think the whole plant dies. It is interesting to see the cactus with Christmas lights on them - probably a challenge to do! The palm trees have lights all the way up the trunks too, so stunning. The Christmas lights are wonderful and so different with no snow. Here's Mom knitting in the sun in the back yard.

Tuesday Lunch and Fashion Square Mall
We met some lovely people from Western Canada on our cruise last January and they have a place down here in Mesa. We have kept in touch and arranged to meet them for lunch on Tuesday. We met them at a restaurant by the Fashion Square Mall so after lunch we had a wander through. It's a very large high end mall and people watching there is amazing. They have valet parking and some very nice stores. I managed to stimulate the economy a tiny bit once I found some things that didn't give me sticker shock! New orange Fit-Flops for me!! This one is called Biker Chic...too funny.

Wednesday Lemons and New Years
Drizzling and cool but very nice for walking. Craig usually walks in the mornings (and misses his four legged friends who are at home in the spaw) and I relax and enjoy my coffee. Today Mom and I were up and dressed and the two of us went for a wander around the neighborhood streets. It is amazing this time of year how loaded the fruit trees are. The grapefruit are huge and ripe and the lemons are beautiful. One house had a huge grapefruit tree and a lemon tree, both loaded with fruit, on their front yard. Mom grabbed a lemon off the ground that had fallen off a tree and it is so perfect. Here it is on the counter. Looking forward to trying it.

We can't believe people let them fall off and don't pick them. They must just get used to having them so it's not a treat for them any more. I am going to check with the garden center and see what time of year a fruit tree can be planted. Imagine fresh picked grapefruit for breakfast? Or fresh lemonade? That would be pretty cool. We have a watering system so we may be able to grow some. You can see how much our plants have grown in two years. (The grass is fake!)

We had a run through Costco in the afternoon. You can get a meal there with all the samples they have through the food area. So many food samples!! Bought new electric toothbrushes since we miss ours from home when we are here. Also a couple of grocery items but they are mostly too large for our time here. On the way home we made a stop at our favorite grocery store "Fresh & Easy" and stocked up some more. We relaxed and watched the last episode of "Fleming - The Man who Would be Bond" (very good, check it out on Netflix, might be USA only though) we got cleaned up and went to the casino at the Talking Stick Resort . People watching here is amazing. We put a couple of bucks into a couple of slot machines but no winners. The casino is on Indian Land in Phoenix and they allow smoking. It was like getting hit with a wall of smoke. We forget what it's like to be exposed to that. None of us could stand the thought of trying to eat a meal in that environment so we left and stopped in at an old favorite restaurant ZTejas in Scottsdale and had a nice supper. Or rather Craig and I did. Mom's dinner was not to her liking but she managed some corn bread and a bit of it. No worries, we had some wine and munchies for a movie at home. We got in our comfies and settled in. None of us made it to midnight so we heard the fireworks outside as we were drifting off to sleep. Another year out, another in.