Three more days until Christmas! Donna’s been a little more festive than I. My week was mostly low key with the usual activities – mainly pickleball. On Monday night, Donna went with her sister, Sheila, and a group of Sheila’s friends to a Dave Koz Christmas Concert at Balboa Theater. She had a great time, but these things really aren’t my cup of tea. I stayed home and watched Monday Night Football.

I met with Dan Cullen, my friend and attorney, a couple of times this week. He’s updating my step-dad’s trust paperwork and making some financial arrangements for us. Our meeting last weekend with my step-dad, Ken, and my brother Eddie went well and we understand Ken’s wishes.

Donna has become quite the grill-master. The Weber Q used to be strictly my domain, but Donna has found she enjoys grilling. On Wednesday, she had a hankering for steaks, so she grilled a couple of New York strips and served them with sauteed mushrooms, grilled veggies and a baked potato topped with chives from her traveling herb garden.

She followed that up on Thursday with wild sockeye salmon on the grill served with grilled bok choy, shishito peppers and cauliflower risotto. Yummy.

Friday was the winter solstice – the days will start getting longer from here. It was also a full moon and meteor showers were predicted. It wasn’t to be here at Mission Bay – we had one of the rare cloud filled nights – I couldn’t see the moon or stars.

Friday night, Donna went to a Christmas cookie exchange party at Sheila’s house. Donna had been baking cookies all afternoon and they exchanged cookies at the party. We have a pantry full of cookies now.

Today my friend, Gary Stemple, will pick us up after lunch for a trip up to Carson in Los Angeles County – about 110 miles from Mission Bay. We’re going to the Chargers game – Chargers vs Baltimore Ravens. The game kicks off at 5:20pm, but we plan to have a few hours of food and drink tailgating before the kick-off. Gary is a season ticket holder and he has four great seats – he’s been generous with them. Donna volunteered to be designated driver for the trip home.

We have one week left in our stay here at Mission Bay RV Resort – we’ll pull out on Friday. I made reservations to return in April for a month, then we’ll come back again next fall. I booked three months – it’s getting harder every year to book a long-term stay here. They are about sold out for next fall/winter already.