December 2007 - St. Louis, MO

It was brought to my attention that in my post titled November 2007, I forgot to mention our wonderful dinner with Sean and Christa Tibbitts. We met at a restaurant in Monterey Bay, California. Sean and Christa are attending the California State University Monterey Bay and will graduate in May 2008. The place they chose to have dinner is where they are thinking about having their graduation lunch celebration. The ambiance was very nice and the food was excellent. Of course it goes without saying that seeing both of them was a delight for us because we don't see them very often. It was a fun evening with stimulating conversation and we look forward to seeing them both graduate in May. The omission did not indicate lack of interest or love of both Sean and Christa, only the mistake of an older grandma.

We arrived in St Louis on December 13 after our deicing (that is airplane lingo but we are talking RV) in Columbia, MO. It isn't as cold in St. Louis, only in the low 40s. Is that like saying gas is only $3.00? Anyway, we set up our RV and jumped in the car to drive across the river to meet Melissa, Vic, and Rachel at Carusos. Carusos is a Sports Bar and Grill where Sara works as a waitress and her boyfriend John, works in the kitchen. We were delighted to see everyone and especially Sara's smiling face. It had been a while since we had seen her. She gave us excellent service and enjoyed a few laughs. Sara is a senior in high school this year and will graduate in May 2008. When dinner was over we headed home. It had been a long day.

Two days later it snowed. We got almost 6 inches of fresh new snow. The weatherman said that was more snow than they had had in several years. Lucky us! It was so white and bright when the sun came out. We just had to go out and romp and play.

The snow lasted for several days. As it started to melt and then freeze again at night it made isicles all over the RV. We were fortunate that the car doors opened so we could start the car and defrost the window. Used our scraper to clear the snow off the car. It was like powder.

We went to Tony Gittos with Melissa, Mark, Rachel, Sara and John (Sara's boyfriend). It was a very nice restaurant and the food was fabulous, as Larry would say.

Larry surprised me with an early Christmas gift. Diamond stud earrings that were 2 carats each. Sounds big but there is a small center diamond and then four marquis cut diamonds around the center diamond. I was shocked and very surprised. They are truly beautiful. I wear them every day - even with my jeans. How decadent!!

We had dinner at Ruth's Chris with Jim and Sheila Mills, Mary and Tom McGhee, Bob Mills and his guest. It was lots of fun talking about the present, past and all the kids and grandchildren. Jim gave Larry a very special bottle of red wine. It was really nice to see everyone again and promised to stay in touch. Hopefully, we will see them soon in Florida.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Melissa's and Vic's house. Mark came with his friend Ray who we had met before. It was nice to see him again. Melissa made a Prime Rib dinner that was soooo good. We brought traditional English Poppers for every one. After stuffing ourselves, we popped the poppers and the fun began. There were paper hats and a small toy for everyone. Larry got magic cards and quickly went to work performing his trick. He was amazed when it actually worked - at least with one person. I got a whistle and decided it would be my rape whistle. It was really a fun night and we laughed a lot.