Christmas Eve Talent Show

 

Christmas Eve here at Mission Bell turned out to be one of the highlights so far for us, what a fun night we had.

It all started a few weeks previously, a bit of planning, a bit of shopping Ropa Style for our costumes and Marj making my Papas prison shirt and his prison bars. She had to alter my dress to get it to fit, that was fun just in its self. My boobs were falling all out and over the place. I was up for it but they assured me that the viewing public wasn't. We had our rehearsals and got this show so fine tuned I forgot my lines

The small play we put on was called “Hang On The Bell Nellie”. Its a story about Nell who fought to try and save her Papa from the Electric chair. The little movie and pictures will tell the rest of the story.

Our Work Campers Crew

Nell’s Papa – In Jail -

Nell (Me)

Handsome Jack (Dann)

Cast L-R

Butch Marie Audrey Mike Dann Patty Harry Marj Myself

Nell and Handsome Jack

That was a lot of fun, wont forget that night in a hurry. After our little skit things got a bit more serious, there was some singing and poem readings plus another little skit about the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Eve came and went, its now Christmas Day and another busy busy day for us work campers. All that food to prepare for all the hungry people for Christmas dinner. I never took any pictures only the little video posted below. Every dinner party and luncheon we do is the same..decorate tables, cook the food, have fun. Clean up and go home. They all look the same after a while. That's the reason why I only took a video of a small section of it.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN HIDALGO

 

Christmas is getting closer and closer and our work group have been talking about going and seeing the Christmas lights in Hidalgo. Hidalgo is a little town not to far away from where we are. This town is well known for its 1 million or so lights. This we had to see.

We all piled into Mike and Audrey's mini van loaded up with our lap blankets and hot drinks and snacks and cameras of course. We had decided we were going to take the horse drawn buggy tour around the town of Hidalgo. 

This house belonged to Las Vegas entertainer-good to see them helping the community

 A dragon – Of course

I was having problems with my camera because I hit a button by mistake and couldn't work out what I had done so….my pictures didn't turn out –only a few.

After our little walk looking at all the light displays it was time for our Buggy Ride.

I was excited to take a buggy ride around Christmas Time. I had never done this before and I could feel the excitement of Christmas while being hauled around by the draft horses.There is a something soothing about hearing the horses hooves on the paved road while being surrounded by all the Christmas lights, bells ringing,people singing. It’s truly a experience I wont forget for a long time.  My first time drinking Eggnogs to I might add, horrible stuff. Below are some pictures of our horse drawn buggy ride

Me, Audrey,Mike,Patty,Dann and Harry. Marj is not visible because she took the picture.

Dann – Harry – Marj

Dann and Myself

A very enjoyable night, Now its back to the grindstone.

Ropa Shopping Trip

Ropa is a Spanish word mean ‘Clothing”

It was time to do some shopping..Ropa Style !! This is the shop a lot of people go to when they need a costume or just a cheap outfit. If you dig deep and look hard, there is really something for everyone in this amazing little shop.  The park where we are have a annual Ropa fashion parade which is a huge event on the Mission Bell/Trade winds calendar. We were just shopping for fun and looking for something that had a lot of Bling on it for New Years Eve.

Who am I kidding

Patty has found a possibility.

Audrey – Patty – Marj

Joy found something to

Joy wants what's up there.

I am thinking this one may be the dress for me

That's definitely a NO Patty

As usual we had a great time once again..

South Padre Island Visit

A bit about Padre Island

Located on the tropical tip of Texas, South Padre Island is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre Bay. Beautiful beaches, warm Gulf waters, fishing, boating, bird watching, shopping, and a diversity of year-round activities await every visitor. As the days wind down with breathtaking sunsets over the bay, night clubs and restaurants come alive with conversation, dining, music and dancing. Many restaurants will even cook your catch! No matter what your interests, South Padre Island offers one of the most fantastic beach vacation destinations in the world. .

About 2 weeks ago a few of us here in the Mission Bell/Trade Winds RV Park decided it would be nice to go and visit Padre Island and spend the night. We all had 3 days in a row of from work camping so the timing was perfect. The weather was beautiful..perfect for a walk on the beach..haven't seen the beach since I left Australia. Padre Island is about a hours drive away and very scenic.  On our way out of Mission we called into some markets and strolled around, BIGGEST markets I have ever seen. I seen so much I wanted to buy, have no idea where I would keep it as our RV is just about as full as it can get. We are at the stage now where ..if we buy something we have to throw something out.. Our first port of call on arriving in Padre Island was to go out and eat some seafood. Audrey and Mike knew such a place and indeed it was a great choice.

 

Waiting for our meals to arrive

A sign hanging over the bar

Me

After our lunch we went outside and walked along the little jetty and I captured this picture of a seagull landing on a pole.

With fully belly's it was time to go and visit the Turtle hospital. This is where all the turtles are taken to that are hurt by propeller blades, fishing nets. They are cared for until they are healthy enough to be let go back into the ocean.

Out of all the pictures I took of all the turtles in the hospital not a one you could see a turtle, they were all under water and when I got the pictures onto my computer NO programme was going to let me make the water invisible, so all I got was the one above of Turtle Eggs. So with that said, it was time to move on and go and check into our motel as it was getting close to check in time and all the discount rooms that change price during the afternoon. After we all checked in and got our special rates we headed up to unpack our luggage. I had a plastic bag so that wasn't to hard.Time to visit the Motel swimming pool.

It was a tad weird to see everyone enjoying the cool water and splashing around. It was only the night before on the News that a lot of The US was in for some snow, NOT US..Temperature was perfect for swimming.  Dann and I decided to go see if we could buy him a pair of bathers because we had forgot to pack them. The others started without us and soon we returned with no swim trunks for Dann so we just sat around and chatted and enjoyed the sunshine and screaming birds. Of course I sat and took some pictures.

Everyone was ready for the next part of our adventure in Padre Island after a couple of hours soaking in the water and a bit of sun tanning, it was time to head out to the little Bar for Happy Hour that Harry and Marj had visited previously. Harry Plays the Banjo and he was looking to see if he could do a few numbers with the Beach Bums that played every Saturday night.He wasn't disappointed.

Cant remember the name of this little bar, but it was sitting over the water and you could SMOKE in there..YA !!!  The last Frontier for smokers I’d say.

The only reason you can smoke in there is because the walls wind up and the breezes sails on through.

This made me chuckle..PeePee Station—toilets

2 man Band---The Beach Bums

Our Dinner- Nachos—Enough to feed the 6 of us

 

Audrey N Mike, they really needed get a room for the night  Audrey N Mike are our Bosses here at Mission Bell.

Marj N Harry

We spent a few hours at the little smoking Bar listening to the music, eating and a bit of drinking. I ordered a Pina Colada and when it arrived the straw was literally standing up in the drink. I went to suck on the straw and got nothing, it was like a thick shake, BUT I managed to get through that one and another. It was like having a drink and a meal at the same time. We all had a great time and it was time now to head to Denny's for desert. Desert wasn't much chop..a bit on the dry side, but the company was excellent. Soon we  were back at the motel and  Marj and Harry headed up to their room for the night. It was only 7.30 I think and wayyyyy to early for me to go to  bed, so Dann and I, Audrey and Mike set up a table in the breakfast area and played cards until it was a decent time for bed.

I don't know what happened but over night it turned quiet chilly and extremely windy, it was so windy we didn't get to go for our walk along the beach. We all voted we didn't really fancy our legs being sand blasted, so we settled for a quick drive along the foreshore and then of to do some touristy things

I definitely was not trying to rescue MArj--

Me and Marj, shes caught in the sharks tooth

This was a big tourist shop, a lot of stuff made out of sea shells.

Who Dat !!

Dann

Our trip to Padre Island was coming to a end, it was time to head home. I had a really good time and I definitely want to go back and smoke in that bar again