Happy Holidays 2011 from Charlotte
and
Smoot!
A pictorial review of our year
The year
started
with a fun
visit with Smoot’s cousin, Cheryl and her husband Bill on Jan
1. On Feb
26, we
sang in Cabaret at UUCP. I was a Rockette again and Smoot
played a gay
usher!
Tragically,
Cash,
shown in
the front in the picture above, died on March 7. He was only 2
1/2
years old.
We were devastated. He was one of the best cats we’d ever had.
We’re
still
mourning him. On March 26 we had dinner at Connie and
Richards, having
won the
tickets at the UUCP auction the previous fall. On April 3, I
had an
historical
display for the 50th anniversary of our church building. On
April 22,
one of
our foster kitties decided to climb the wall. He reminded us
of Cash so
we
adopted him and changed his name from Yogi to Rocky because he
was a
fighter.
Rocky also
got
along with
Bagheera, Cash’s brother, with our Cockatiel, Cici and with
Lady
Turtle. On
Easter, April 24, I wanted to have a photo of me and all four
foster
kitties,
but the basket broke and the kittens spilled out, luckily
unhurt! Smoot
and I
had our Easter photo taken at UUCP.
On May 26, Smoot, Paula and I went to Phoenix Comic Con. I got to wear the Jedi robe that Susan had made for my 60th birthday last year. Smoot was amazed at how respectfully I was treated as a Jedi! We celebrated Smoot’s 61st birthday on June 20th, Richard’s 70th on June 29 and supper with John and Julia on July 2.
On July 3, Smoot had a belated birthday celebration with the Leungs. On July 5, we saw the haboob or giant dust storm hit the Valley. On Aug 4, we celebrated our 38th anniversary. On Aug 6, we took part in the Bowl-arama for Paw Placement, the animal rescue group I volunteer with.
On Aug 19, I had an early birthday
celebration
with the
Leungs. On my actual birthday, Aug 26, we had a going away party
for
Chris at
Connie and Richard’s and a cake for me. The next day we flew to
WA to
attend
Matt and Carey’s wedding and saw Smoot’s aunt May Louise and
cousin
Marti. We
went to Austin Sept 3-5 to attend Jency’s father, Wiley James’
funeral.
We went
to St. Michael’s on Sun and saw several old friends.
We also visited with Karen and Lew. We celebrated Susan’s birthday on Sept 9. Tragically, Pauline Gay died on Sept 6; her memorial service was on Oct 1. I coordinated the reception. On Oct 2, we celebrated Katherine’s b’day at Fry’s Electronics and then had supper that evening with Emily, in town for a medical conference. She liked my collections!
On Oct 26, several of us dressed up for Halloween at choir practice. I wore my Jedi robe. On Oct 28, we hosted the bridge group that Sandy heads and on Oct 29 hosted Linda’s birthday party. On Nov 2, Carolyn and I celebrated what would have been our mothers’ 100th birthdays that month. I also compiled a history of Mother’s life and what she would have seen had she lived to 2011.
Over Nov 12-15, we went to VA for Mr. Mitchell’s memorial services. Jency joined us and we had supper with Brenda. On Nov 17, Kathleen stayed overnight with us. On Nov 20, I sang with other UU’s at Occupy Phoenix. We’d been asked to come and sing to change the feeling of the gathering from negative and angry to positive and hopeful. Several of us wore our Standing on the Side of Love t-shirts. On Nov 24, we had 13 for a choir Thanksgiving potluck. Smoot smoked a 20-pound turkey.
On Dec 1-2, we went to Flagstaff to attend the NAU Holiday Concert. We stayed in Joanne’s beautiful condo in the midst of a winter wonderland. On Dec 3, we braved the rain and cold to go to the APS Electric Parade. On Dec 4, we celebrated Jimmy’s birthday with Chinese food and the movie Hugo.
On Dec 9, we
went
to the
Hanukkah dinner at Susan and Duke’s that we’d won at the UUCP
auction.
After the dinner, we gambled. On Dec
10, we went to see Susan and Sam sing in their holiday
concert. On Dec
11, we
went to Bob and Lucienne’s to celebrate Bob’s 90th birthday.
We went
caroling on Dec 17. At the pizza dinner afterward, we posed by some of the
gift boxes
being made for Eritrean families. Smoot and I made a basket
for a
family of six. On Christmas eve, we had dinner at Lois and
Dale's
along with Don and Sandy. Then we sang at the late service.
On
Christmas,
Smoot got
a new, ultra soft long robe to replace the one he'd had for
probably
over ten years. I got a photo quality printer and cute t-shirt
from
Karen and Lew among other goodies. Rocky got to check out
Smoot's new
robe. We couldn't get Rocky to wear a holiday collar but Gheer
was
grudgingly willing to as was our foster, Sammy.
After
opening gifts, we
went to the service at UUCP and the potluck afterward. Smoot
and Igor
were in holiday attire. Later
that afternoon, we had Christmas dinner with Paula and Stan
and the Gay
and Manker clans. On Dec 26, we had a belated holiday
celebration with
the Leungs enjoying ice cream and gift cards and making use of
a mirror
for a group snapshot. On Dec 28, Paula and Stan hosted a choir
potluck
and we were there in our seasonal splendor, a nice way to end
the year.
Hope
you’ve
had a
fun and productive year and will have a happy and healthy new
year!